20th april – 20th may

Trekking has been one of the most physically challenging things for me, despite being an athlete, I can barely survive trekking with help. However this time it was a whole different case, I had to lead a group and behave like a proffesional mountaineer. From going on tough places to create the way to walk for the trekkers to leading the way and giving callouts, even though the trek was only 4 days long, my journey began a month early. My mother is a basic mountaineer who takes people from all around the world on different treks.

A month before the trek, she informed me about the trek and told me I had to manage everyone and lead everyone, basically do her job with a little help from her side. I was her sidekick. So my learning began on 20th of april, when she started teaching me about the basics of mountaineering. From how to walk in tough places to how to call out everyone, how to navigate and how to start a fire and etc.

Some basic information I learned that average trekkers don’t because they just have to follow a path we create-

• how to start a fire
• different knot tying techniques
• how to navigate thorugh forests
• how to walk through tough and slippery places
• how to use certain tools liker ice axe, hooks, gators and trekking sticks.
• firstaid
• leadership skills

These all took abount 25 days of time as I had to learn and revise everything so I don’t mess up. If messed up, it can be life threatening. I was the manager, and the leader of the group. Mountaineering is a thing in which it takes high precision of skills to not mess up.

Why did I take management and leadership?

The reason I took this was to learn social and communication skills and to become independent in situations. Because I didn’t know anyone and one group came from dubai and some people were from Mumbai. Managing and leadership are jobs way harder than just being the part of the group, you have to do everything from scratch and need to have high level of social skills. I am an introverted person and lack social skills, so I wanted to challenge myself and develop them and come out of my comfort zone as in life I will require social skills.

Learning outcomes and categories –

This project falls in all the categories –

Creativity – Trying something new (Leadership and management) and creativity is an important aspect of leadership.

Activity – Trekking

Service – All the profit earned was donated and none was kept

LO – 1 – I developed leadership and communication skills, and learned various kinds of stuff about mountaineering.

LO – 2 – I faced challenges while trekking (I almost slippled multiple times) and communicating but overcame them as the trek went on

LO – 3 – I planned out the entire trip and the days from where to start and end, and executed it. Despite facing some weather conditions the plan was executed.

LO – 4 – I was working collaboratively with my mother and other senior intructors to help people trek with safety

LO – 5 – I was regularly involved in planning and helping others with the trek throughout the month. Giving 1-2 hours everyday or even more during the weekends to gain the required knowledge.

Images and videos, of me leading the way-