c u on top - satyabrata dam

  The other day while talking to a friend, I am not sure how our conversation turned to polar bears and Arctic. My friend wanted to know if I had any close calls with a polar bear, which we often refer as the most dangerous predator on planet. I have had several, I mumbled, but she insisted if any of them were funny. I wondered, funny for whom, me or the bear! That’s a million dollar question. And then it came to me, a really silly wild encounter on a very commonplace evening, what made it funny for me that I wasn’t even trying anything remotely adventurous or risky. It was just the place and the timing and I happened to be at the right place at the wrong time. Here is the story that I related to my friend.   The year might have been 2008 in the middle of January I found myself in a place that only an insane would venture at that time of the year. No need to explain why, to me it seemed rather natural. The place was the capital of Svalbard, Longyearbyen. The northernmost a...

Fifty four years back at the age of 4, standing with my dad beneath a towering deodar, at China Peak (2611m), a well-known view point just above the lacustrine hill town of Nainital, I had seen with my eyes wide open my very first and my biggest dream – to travel the world and climb every mountain. We were there to watch the sun rise from across the Tibetan Plateau.  Nothing had changed in 54 years It was a cold dawn in April, the eastern sky just beginning to turn pink and while my restless eyes flitted around my dad stood silent. As the sky continued to brighten and the endless array of icy peaks to my North started punctuating the horizon, he raised his hand and pointed at Nanda Devi and said – this is the Himalaya, a part of your heritage and it is because of these mountains that you and I and this land exists. My dad was a man of few words. Yet these words drew my attention to the amazing spectacle unfolding right in front.  Slowly the sun rose further and the white summi...

  I have been climbing and hiking in Bulgaria for over ten years, but always in the Rila and Pirin Ranges and sparsely into Rodopi’s too. It’s a country that I love, though the mountains aren’t high, they are wild and alluring enough for my restless feet. This year I decided to explore some new areas and chanced upon the Central Balkan Range, barely 2 hours by road to the east of Sofia. I realized that it is possible to walk all along the ridge of this range, skipping from one peak to another pretty much in a west to east or reverse axis, and the entire crossing might take around a ten days. As I had only 4/5 days at my disposal (sometimes I am not free due to prior commitments) I decided to explore and traverse the highest part of this ridge – the massif in and around the highest peak of Botev. And what made this trip truly special was that my sister Stefanie was my hiking partner. She is super strong, a true nature and mountain lover, who can match me step for step no matter how ...

  Tahtali Dagi as viewed from Beycik Village Lycian Way or Trail, as it is commonly referred to, is Turkey’s longest distance hiking trail of about 540km, beginning at Fethiye and snaking all the way into Antalya. It is divided into several stages, where you can join in or leave at several points if you don’t have the time or inclination to do the trail in its entirety. If you are in good shape, I believe the entire length can be done in 3 to 4 weeks. Most of the trail goes along the coastline and forests. As my main reason to go on this trail was to hike to the summit of the highest peak Tahtali Dagi or Mt Olympos (2365m), I opted to do the stage from Beycik to Goynuk.   Day 1 – I took the morning bus from Antalya main bus station to Kumluca, and got off at the highway near Ulupinar (in front of Kayalar café) and paid 55 TLR. Started off at around 10am. From here on till reaching Beycik mosque, covering a distance of around 9km in 3 hrs, it’s mostly a dry dirt road, with ...

  Lake Deniz Considering the fact that I travel around the world, specifically looking for peaks towering above 4000m, I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that Turkey has an amazing mountain range near the Black Sea, where the highest summit nearly touches 4000m and is referred by the locals as the Turkish Switzerland. This happened just the previous month where I was going to guide an international group to the top of Turkey, aka Mt Ararat, the oft claimed resting place of THE ARK. I have been to Turkey twice before, on both occasions merely leading groups to Ararat and taking a flight out. But this time I had several weeks to spare after Ararat and I pondered if there was any other mountain worth exploring and climbing in Turkey. Google came up promptly with Kaçkar Range. I found one blog by a solo guy and his pictures sealed the deal.   Flowers everywhere  Post Ararat, my climbing partner and friend, Kiki from Greece and I headed for this little known elusive ...