Steep climb pacing, dehydration recovery on trek, what to wear trekking, military approach to trekking, hiking protocol checklist There is a moment on every steep ascent usually somewhere past the point where your legs stop asking politely and start demanding when a trek stops being a walk and becomes an operation. I learned this the […]
“Everyone drives through Ananthagiri on the way to Araku. The trick is to stop the car, shoulder your pack, and let everyone else keep driving.” There is a particular kind of place that survives precisely because it is overlooked, and Ananthagiri is the finest example I know of in the Eastern Ghats. Almost everyone who […]
No Food, No Water, and a Group That Trusted Me “The rain did not stop for two days. Neither did the thought that kept circling my head: they followed me in here.” The monsoon in Coorg does not fall. It arrives, like something with intent, and it does not leave. By the second hour of […]
What Trekking and Leadership Have Taught Me About Success “The mountain and the boardroom ask the same question, just in different languages: can you keep your head when the trail disappears?” For years my life ran on two clocks. Saturday and Sunday belonged to the mountains, the early starts, the cold air, the weight of […]
The Battle of opting between two shoes! By a Project Manager who also happens to get lost in the mountains – deliberately. There is a corner in my room that, if you walked in without any context, would tell you a confusing story about the person who lives here. On the left sits a pair […]
Building a Culture of Ownership and Excellence “An excuse explains why the result did not happen. Ownership asks what you will change so it does next time. One looks backward; the other moves.” There is a phrase I have used for years, and I want to be careful with it, because it is easily misunderstood. […]
My Journey From Laka Glacier to the Sahyadris “My first real climb broke me a little. I went back to the same mountain three times until it had taught me everything I needed, and only then did I feel ready for the rest.” Everyone who climbs has an origin story, the trek that turned a […]
Everything You Need to Take Your First Steps Off the Ground “Everyone you admire on the wall was once a beginner standing at the bottom, certain they couldn’t do it. The only difference is they started.” If you are reading this, some part of you already wants to climb. Maybe you watched someone move up […]
Leading Teams Through Complexity and Change “A warrior is not someone who never feels fear. A warrior is someone who has learned to act well while feeling it.” The word warrior gets misused in business writing. It usually arrives wrapped in noise, aggression, conquest, crushing the competition, the language of people who have never actually […]
19 states. 40+ treks. One trail at a time. “The trail teaches you that getting lost is not failure. It is just the part of the map nobody writes down.” I never set out to count states. Counting came later, on a long train ride home, when I tried to list the places my boots […]
