7 October 2026 Day 17 Zero Point (12,000’)
It’s just past 0700 at 12,000 feet. I’m lying in my tent on a NOLS expedition to the Nadi Devi valley in India. We are resting today because we did a load ferry up to 14,500’ yesterday, getting onto snow and returning in the clouds and rain. It’s a classic expedition style move – “climb high, sleep low” – move the load up, push the bodies a bit and then return to sleep at lower elevation, rest and then move everything else on the next trip up tomorrow where we’ll stay there. It’s a tactic that’s been used since the first himikayan expeditions and the same type we used on the successful NOLS expedition to Denali a few years ago. (We moved 9 days of food, 4 ropes, 26 bottles of fuel, 8 pickets, 4 probes and all our crampons to the cache at Camp 1.
A summit is not our goal. In this area, they’re too technical for a student group. Our goal is a pass above 18,000’.
It’s day 17 of our expedition but I’ve been on the move for a bit longer coming straight from an amazing course in Wyoming with a group from NASA. I finished debriefing that course at 1115 and jumped on the shuttle ride at 1200 to begin the long journey to India. Because of the course in Wyoming, I would miss the briefing days in India, instead I’d be arriving with the students in Delhi beginning the expedition there.
Delhi is a wild place. The people, the sounds, the animals on the side of the road, the hunks of the horn, the trafffic. I haven’t yet spent any real time there, just transited through. But I tried to stay awake for the 9 hour drive to Ranikhet to soak it all in.
Just flying to India is wild. I’ve never been past Europe so flying just south of Iraq and over Saudi Arabia, I felt like I was a long way from home. Boarding the Air India plane in London, I felt like I was in an India Jones movie.
So we’ve now made our way to a place called Zero Point, where expeditions jump to different passes or peaks. It’s a grassy spot near a river and tourists come every now and then to see the area or meet Baba G, the resident holy man. Baba G has been here every summer for a few decades now I believe. I have yet to meet him since he was out of the mountains during the last week but he returned yesterday during our load ferry. He apparently was told by his guru to worship Nanda Devi and so walked into the mountains with almost nothing to begin his worship. He now has a little stone hit where he stays for about four months of the year practicing his worship. If all goes well, we’ll meet him today.
On this expedition we have five instructors (3 Indian, 1 Chilean and me) and 14 students (all from the US and ages 18 to 32). The Course Leader is a good friend I worked my first mountaineering course with NOLS back in 2007. I’ve since him once since then – around 2010 – while our two NOLS course were passing each other on the trail. I remember having such a fun catch up, telling the students I was with that I’d catch up and I remember wishing I had more time with my friend and mentor.
I did instructor trainings with two of the other instructors and am good friends with both. The fifth instructor (joining is a week late) has been an excellent addition. It’s a wonderful instructor team dynamic and so great to be surrounded by friends.
The student group has been pushed by altitude, slight GI disturbances and some long days but overall they are happy to be here and enjoy pushing higher and being on the move.
We’ve had some wild trails with some significant exposure so we’ve moved very carefully in parts, being very directive to students. We’ve also travelled through little villages and camped in them too. That means we all drink Chi tea in Chi shops and buy local snacks and sometimes get to interact with the local children, which is always a treat.
With five instructors, there’s a bit more free time. Only cooking every fifth day and rotating through classes with students allows some time to hang. Sitting with my course leader a few days ago, I thought of how happy I am to be here with him, having spent a month together – just the two of us back in 2007, and having only had one trail conversation 16 years ago. It was like no time passed at all. And so we sat and chatted and in little bits he shares with me this valley that has held such meaning for him. We are of an older generation still at NOLS and having worked together 19 years ago, it feels like a special bond.
Usually working NOLS courses in the summer in Alaska for the last few years where it almost never gets too dark to do anything, it feels very strange for darkness to come just after 6pm. There are times when I’m in the tent at 6:30pm and asleep by 8. I find it quite nice especially when physical rest is so important. We’ve had some amazing stars already and had fun with my green laser pointer teaching the stars to students and co-instructors.
11 October 2026 Day 21 Camp I (14,500’)
We’ve now been at Camp I for a few days. We wait to acclimatize, iron out our systems of doing things and wait for our weather window which we hope comes tomorrow. The last three days have been clear in the morning followed by snow squalls in the afternoon once the clouds have build up into the valley. The temps get to the low 20s at night and I make the rounds before bed to make sure students have the tips and tricks they need to stay warm.
8 November 2026
I’m back from India now. What a wild place, it felt like another planet much of the time. From the way people lived to the spectacular mountains. The course finished well, we got as high as 17,000′. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. I’m now on the way to Antarctica, trying to catch up on my writing.