🇮🇳 look out for these signs when hiking‼️

Did I have... AMS?

It was my "worst hiking experience" not because the views were obscured like that in Mexico, as you can see the summit was absolutely stunning! But I got very very very ill and felt the worst I've ever been for a long while

This was a hike in northern India, Triund, a part of the Dhauladhar range of Himalayas. It takes about 5-6 hours of 9km one way, and ~1km in elevation gain. We joined a local guide/tour and camped overnight near the peak.

𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱?

Till today I don't know what caused 𝗶𝘁, but it MIGHT have been AMS (acute mountain sickness), though Triund Peak was only 2800++ km high.

These are some of the signs/symptoms of altitude sickness I pulled from the internet (that I had or not)

✅ Nausea and vomiting

✅ Heavy head (dizziness)

✅ Fatigue (I brushed it off as tiredness after a whole day of trekking)

✅ Sleeping problem (insomnia) (I'm blessed to rarely have this issue on a daily basis, but on that night I couldn't sleep for shiz)

✅ Discomfort (no shiz)

✅ Rapid heartbeat

❌ Blocked ears (not that I remember)

❓Headache (honestly can't rember either)

❓Lack of appetite

❓Fever (I felt feverish but didn't have a thermometer to measure LOL)

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗱

🥾 It started off great and we had a dog to accompany us for a part of the trek! We joined a group tour which mainly consisted of local domestic tourists from India, not a single international tourist besides my partner and I that I could make out. They were mildly curious and we had a good chat with some of them :D

🏔 Reached the peak after some huffing and puffing for 9km. Still feeling pretty alright, a big part of the group we were with didn't make it to the summit (probably because it was marketed as a "beginners hike", but it wasn't exactly for absolute beginners), and so we had a great big part of the peak to ourselves.

✨Phenomenal views, my first time hiking to such landscapes. Even caught some parts of the sunset on the peak 🥺

👣 We were running a bit late so we had to rush down, and that's WHEN IT STARTED (?)

☠️I felt a bit wonky, like each step down had a force that penetrated my skull idk macam klONg klonG KLOng

🍛 We finally reached our campsite some hundred metres down from the peak, and had dinner served. ❗️It could've been the dinner that caused me to vomit later on hMmm

🔥 Had a lovely campfire too, it was too cold and the fire was much needed. Beautiful night skies 🌠 but I was feeling quite tired so we head off first to our tent

⛺️🤢 In the tent I started feeling really bad and was shivering for a while, it was close to 0deg and back then I was dumb and didn't know a sleeping pad/mat is crucial for outdoors camping in the cold (and it wasn't provided either, only blankets). So it COULD be because of the cold temps that caused my loss of sleep & intense shivering.

🤮 It gradually worsened and I vomited a whole big plastic bag full of food from the whole day... and in it was my precious sock that I didn't have the time to remove :" Goodbye sock 🥲🧦

🤒 It got so bad that I was so weak & couldn't move, and had to ask my partner to help dig out the medicines that my overprepared ass bring on all my trips overseas, and...

✅ Thankfully the medicine (anti nauseous pills iirc) worked! I could finally sleep a bit in my discomfort till the next day where I had 0 appetite and just drank some very much needed ☕️ HoT CHAI 🔥 You can see from my face that I was quite traumatized from the previous night :'D

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱'𝘃𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆

If I went again with my current level of experience, I would've just done it in one day without a guide (save money too LOL), and set off earlier so there was no rush up or down. Maybe acclimatize myself better somehow... if it was even due to AMS

🧐 But I suppose it was a good idea to go with a guide too as back then I didn't have the confidence I have now to be able to navigate a trail by myself

India really isn't for beginners... we also met with snowstorms and several screwups along the way like missing our 13h intercity bus ride and hitchhiking as written in this post, but that being said I would still very much recommend the visiting India, and the hike!

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