The Mountains Beckon...Still

I didn't know quite what to expect in India. I had high hopes in Zambia of taking my love of the outdoors with me - hiking in the bush, camping, etc. Ah yes, naive me. There are lions and elephants in the bush there. There are more things there that want to eat you than you can shake a stick at. Literally. On my move to India, I made the conscious decision to leave a lot of that camping gear behind. It had come in useful in Africa - but felt like overkill. The Himalaya are close - but am I going to be able to squeeze in trips to Tibet or Nepal? Reluctantly, I packed light.

At first it didn't seem like a big deal. Moving quickly from business in Mumbai to Delhi to Bihar - I didn't have much time to go hiking, nor did I find any areas to do so aside from a bit of urban exploration. Alas, mountains inhabit the Indian spirit. Some Hindu gods are said to reside in the mountains. Without looking too hard, the mountains in India found me. Or at least they are trying to.

I attended a talk by Stephen Alter, a prominent writer on Indian culture, mountains, and his childhood there. The pictures drew me in. At the talk, I met the head of the Himalaya Club in Delhi. Turns out, his dad was the leader of the first Indian party to summit Everest, the third group to ever summit the mountain, in 1965. I met with him again a few weeks later to share stories, advice and pictures. He runs a mountaineering themed hotel, where all of the rooms are named after famous explorers, climbing pictures adorn the walls, and a rock wall scales up the lobby four floors to the skylights. Its the only indoor rock wall in all of New Delhi. Indoor.... That's because I was also introduced to an amazing outdoor rock wall. Yep, just about in my backyard, a great, big monster of a wall with sport routes and gnarly overhangs that nimble little Indian kids can scamper up, but I have no chance. And just to rub it in a bit, I found a posting for a guy leaving town who was looking to offload his climbing gear.

I think the signs just all point in one direction. The right direction. To go higher. I'm heading to the mountains of Colorado for the holidays, and you can be sure that I will be returning with a large bag of gear. Who knows what mountainous adventures await. Its because the mountains beckon. Still...and always.

(picture courtesy of http://www.sikhspectrum.com/)