Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
- Mark Twain
I’m Kaushal, an outdoor / climbing guide in the Himalayas. I love everything about it – the vast open spaces I live in, the peaks, the people and the opportunities it gives me as an adventurer and as a human being.
What do I do there? I climb mountains, run rivers, herd sheep with my Gaddi (shepherds in the Himalayas) friends in the high meadows of Himachal or go horse racing with the Chagpas of Changthang… Basically, wander and guide groups across the Himalayas for most of the year.
I’ve climbed more than 110 peaks between 6,000-7,500m (across Himachal, Ladakh, Zanskar, Gharwal, Kumaon and the East Karakorum) that include a lot of first ascents on relatively unknown peaks in lesser-known parts of the Himalayas, some so obscure that I am one of the few who knows of their existence.
I regularly lived out of glaciers in Ladakh, Gharwal, Himachal and Kumaon. Some of the relatively known peaks I have climbed alpine style are Nun (7135m), Kun (7048), Shivling (6543m), Bhagirathi (6856m), Chukhamba II (7070m), Trishul I (7120m), Ronti (6063m), White Needle (6420m), Pinnacle (6955m), Momstang Kangri I (7526m).
When I am not guiding, I love to pack my sack and hit the trails to some remote valley, going over high passes, camping by the still waters of some high altitude lake or on a glacier and discovering new peaks and trekking routes. Of course Maggie and Biki my trusted dogs are always there for company.
Mountains pretty much take up all of my mindspace. But beyond them, I am a huge Mark Twain fan. Thoreau, Muir, Gaston Rebuffat, Bonatti, Hermann Buhl, Yvon Chouinard, Fred Beckey and Jerzy Kukuczka are a close second on my scale of favorites.
