Take Your Boring Office Trips To New Heights (Literally!) With The Himalayan Mountain Challenge

We spend a large part of our time in working spaces. Bonding and connecting with people we spend an entire day with and form friendships that last only as long as the working hours do. But the mountains have the ability to forge bonds and impart skills that can last a lifetime. It can teach you lessons about working together that cubicles are incapable of.

Instead of throwing a lot of money on a relatively unimaginative office trip, how about you and your co-workers head to the mountains and learn interesting skills, such as strategising survival, up-cycling waste and trekking efficiently.

The Himalayan Mountain Challenge Programme

The Himalayan Mountain Challenge by Indiahikes is focused on developing management skills, team spirit and physical fitness in a completely non-simulated environment. The group is taken on a trek, and every day is spent amongst nature learning how to survive and strive with the most basic resources.

How it works?

• You contact Indiahikes (info@indiahikes.com) and discuss how many people will be taking part in the Himalayan Mountain Challenge, what is the average fitness level and a detailed description along with the health certificate of each participant.

• After an elaborate discussion, you pick one of the four locations for your Himalayan Mountain Challenge. When the necessary documents and details are taken care of, an itinerary for all 6 days will be sent.

• Now, you leave your city at a decided date and begin the Himalayan Mountain Challenge with two Indiahikes' trek leaders, two Indiahikes' volunteers and 15-20 people who comprise the back-end staff. Rishikesh is the venue where you have to assemble for all treks.

Here are the locations you can pick from. Note that all these treks are beginner-friendly:

Bedni Bugyal: Familiar with the epic Roopkund trail? The meadows of Ali and Bedni fall on the same trail, taking you through dense forests and pristine brooks. The campsites are situated right next to the endless grasslands, with Mt Trishul and Mt Nanda Gunti looking over them.

Kedarkantha: A great beginner trek, Kedarkantha has a thrilling summit climb, which further adds to its charm of beautiful campsites and an exciting trail.

Dayara Bugyal: The meadows of Dyara Bugyal are arguably the most beautiful in the entire region of the Uttarakhand Himalayas. The trek to this high-altitude meadow is wrapped up with an exhilarating climb to Dayara Top.

Deoriatal-Chandrashila: Deoriatal has a panoramic view of the major peaks of the Indian Himalayas. The awe-inspiring sight keeps you company through the entire stretch of the trail.

Once you have picked a location, get ready for the time of your life!

The number of participants (minimum 30 and maximum 120) are divided into groups and are given a number of challenges that add a spirit of healthy competition to the trek. The series of activities that teams compete in focus on boosting team work, cooperation and honing the capacity to make the best out of scarce resources.

The Indiahikes team uses a fun incentive of "mountain money", which is divided in equal amounts to each team before the beginning of each challenge. The team that is the most organised and creative, usually emerges as the winner. This "mountain money" can later be used by the winning team as discounts on future treks.

The trek and summit climb spans over a period of three days, reaching an altitude of 12,500 ft. All the treks in the aforementioned list do not require prior experience, but the Indiahikes team strongly suggests some kind of physical preparation.

The Himalayan Mountain Challenge comes with an exciting session of white water rafting over the Ganges in Rishikesh. The final dose of adventure perfectly concludes the 5-day long experience of trekking, learning life skills and connecting with your co-workers in a way that can never happen on a conventional office trip.

Here's a rough look at what the Himalayan Mountain Challenge itinerary looks like:

Day 1: Pick up at Rishikesh and an in-depth introduction to the programme.

Day 2: First stretch of the trek (3-5 hours) and activities that wind-up by 6pm.

Day 3: Second stretch of the trek (3-5 hours) when climbers summit.

Day 4: Descent to the base camp and announcement of the Himalayan Mountain Challenge results.

Day 5: Reach Rishikesh by evening.

Day 6: White water rafting at Rishikesh and the end of the programme.