BMC- NIMAS – 1st week in NIMAS Campus

I suggest reading Part1 of this, before reading more about this.

Read Part 1 Here – https://meander23.com/2020/09/08/basic-mountaineering-course-nimas/

I was excited and scared about this course at the same time. I had my own doubts on completing the course. I prepared myself for 10 months, yet, I knew my preparations weren’t enough. I had mentally made up my mind to give a try and I won’t back out. 

Dirang is a small beautiful town. I explored the town for few hours from morning 5 to 7 after having hot morning chai. We got in campus bus around 7.30. As soon as I got into campus bus, I was so excited. When we entered NIMAS campus, few staff members welcomed us. I was overwhelmed looking at the campus. Its surrounded by lush green mountains. These photos just don’t give Justice to its original beauty.  

Day 1 was light. We had our breakfast, collected all equipment’s, submitted documents took a small nap and mingled with everyone after lunch. Evening we had a medical checkup.  

Day 2: Our official day 1 of course started with early morning campus introduction & post that we went to campus temple and did Puja for the wonderful learnings and time during our course. Day 2 was also light. Post breakfast we had warm official welcome meeting lecture from director followed by Medical lecture & BMC course intro lecture. 

Post lunch we had “Introduction to mountain equipment’s” Class. This got us energized. Now we were all set for the course. Post this we had “Introduction to Ladder & Knots” followed by evening mountain movie. I had a mixed feeling after watching movie. It was scary and exciting at the same time. 

Trek starts from day 3. Schedule from this day till day 8 is almost similar. Day 8 will be the last day in NIMAS campus. On that day, post lunch you can go to Dirang bazar and buy any left-out essentials just before the trek. Remaining day can be utilized for packing.  

Schedule from Day 3 to 6 & Day 8 

6- 8.30 AM – Endurance walk to several nearby hills with backpack of minimum 8 kgs. Back pack weight increases every day up to 15 kgs (Yes, they weigh your backpack). If you finish your endurance walk late, your breakfast time will reduce. 

8.30 -9.30 AM – Breakfast 

9.30 – 1.00 PM — Trek to natural rock boulder near campus. Trek distance is ~1.5 kms. Bouldering and Rock-climbing practice. 

1.00 -2.30 PM – Lunch & rest 

2.30 -5.00 PM – Either artificial wall climbing practice or theory class. 

5.30 – 7.00 PM – class or movie 

7.00 – 8.00 PM – Dinner 

NOTE 1: NIMAS to Dirang Bazar and back to campus will be by walk – 8Kms. We gals got a special treatment, as they provided us vehicle. 

NOTE 2: Leave all extra and unnecessary luggage in NIMAS Campus itself. It will be long walk from here on and bag weighs more than 20+ kgs. You need to even share & carry extra weight of tent, cooking vessels, rope and other items. 

Classes Covered during first 7 days: Medical first aid, Ladders/ Knots & hitches, Rope coil & caring, Mountain manner & ethics, Mountain terminology, Do’s and Don’ts in Mountaineering, Glacier, Avalanche and Map reading. 

Day 7 – Endurance trek to Zhumthang 

This place is exactly on the other side of Nimas campus. You can see the high-tension tower of this village from NIMAS. It’s a full day trek with heavy backpack. We started in the morning 6.15 AM with the downhill of 5 kms followed by uphill of 12.5 kms. We reached Zhumthang by 10.15 AM. It’s a solid uphill battle. You see variety of trees & you can listen to soothing birds chirping all the way. 

 We had a wonderful pack lunch and spent an hour in Zhumthang and started our back journey around 11.30. 

 We were closer to NIMAS campus around 1.30 PM, but our trek didn’t end there. We went for another round of trek till KV School and we were back to campus at 3.30. it was exhaustive walk to the core. Post this we had another session from 5.PM before EOD. 

Stay/ Food/ Toilet rooms/Bathing arrangements/ Female instructors in campus 

Women’s wing has a dormitory which has bunker beds. The room in which I had accommodation could fit close to 20+ people in one room. Female instructors were also staying in the same room (don’t worry, they are super cool). Men’s wing had 2 big tents; each tent could accommodate around 20 people.  

Toilet rooms & bathing room had basic facilities. You could wash and dry your clothes here. Make sure to do that based on weather. I took bath almost 2-3 days once till I left campus. 

We have both vegetarian and non vegetarian food. Non- Veg food is served mostly in night.

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