An Indian Express team begins a trek to Siachen and keeps you posted, every day.
The first morning in Ladakh, doctors say, can be a bit tricky. Especially if the plan is to spend three weeks at extreme altitudes and climbing glaciers. Fortunately, none of the 30 odd civilian participants of the Siachen trek team woke up with the tell tale signs of mountain sickness. The only thing that made hearts race a bit faster was the first hurdle to getting onto the highest battlefield in the world - the battery of medical tests and physical fitness examinations.
These, our team leader, assured us, would be the deciding factor to our moving on the Siachen base camp - a day’s drive from Leh - for the training phase. The trick, a veteran mountaineer told us, was to keep the Blood Pressure under control. Another crucial test - one which sounded more like a chemical formula - being the SPO2 level that measures the oxygen level in the blood. All went fine on the first day but these tests and a more severe physical fitness examination will go on for the next seven days till the Army doctors are totally certain that our bodies can take on the rigours of the glacier.
With reason too, as all casualties on the glacier in the past six years have been due to medical reasons. While not a single shot has been fired since the 2003 ceasefire, the biggest enemy remains the biting cold and hostile terrain. With an average of 10 medical evacuations per month - anything as simple as a bad headache or broken tooth can be fatal at extreme temperatures - only the fittest of soldiers are posted on the glacier.
... contd.
Epaper
Newsletter
Stocks
Weather
Horoscope
