In love with the mountains

When most girls in their early twenties can very often be spotted hanging out with friends at malls, Farista Mirri would most likely be seen in sports shops stocking up on trekking gear. For Farista, trekking is like oxygen— something she cannot live without. The young girl has trekked to high altitude places in India and border areas and has surmounted various obstacles like physical discomforts, injury and inclement weather to trek to the summits of some notoriously dangerous mountains like Goechala in Sikkim and Kedarkantha in Uttarakhand.

Of course, those are not the only ones Farista has trekked to — she has hiked to the summits of mountains like Sandakphu in Darjeeling, Chokramudi peak and the Kumara Parvatha peak in Karnataka.  Some hikes are excruciatingly difficult while others are relatively easier but every time Farista stands on the summit with the mountains surrounding her, she feels she is home! Farista cannot  pinpoint the exact moment when she became enamored by the mountains but says it could be the trips she tagged along with her professor father that led to her love affair with the peaks.“My father is a nature lover and I guess that love got imbibed in me too.”

At the Goechala peak summit

Though an only child, Farista credits her parents and her grandparents with allowing her the space and freedom to do what she loves the most —trekking. The term trekking is a misleading term for the treks that Farista has traversed. She says, “There have been 10-day trips where you reach the base camp only on the 7th day. Sometimes, you have to trek six to twelve hours straight in uphill terrains!” There have been instances when she has gone solo but conveniently omitted that fact to her parents. The Goechala Peak has a track record of being a dangerous one, claiming lives every year and Farista has been there thrice. Kedarkantha too is not an easy climb.  So did she not feel scared?

“My parents are scared because sometimes I can be out of phone range for days but they trust me. I go with organised trekking groups who are experts, so there is nothing to worry about,” she replies. But unforeseen obstacles can come up like it did when she hiked the Goechala peak, “I had a bout of food poisoning but my leader encouraged me, gave me tablets and egged me on. He kept an eye on me and helped me to reach the summit first.” The Goechala trek was the most difficult one at 16,200 feet and she mentions starting out at the unearthly hour of 2 am and feeling dizzy because of the antibiotics, “At one point, I was standing at the edge of a steep ridge, one misstep and it would have meant death!” she says of the dangerous high altitude trek. She also adds, “Yes, you are cold, your clothes are wet, you dream of the warmth of your home and would give anything for a hot cup of tea made by your mother but once I reach back home, I immediately think of the next peak I have to trek to.”

 

For the Kedarkantha trek, only five from her group could make it to the summit. She adds, “We cannot stand there for long because the cold is numbing!” All these hardships are worth it when she reaches the summit. “From the Sandakphu summit, you can see the Everest, Kangchenjunga, Lhotse and Makalu peaks. It’s an experience that words cannot describe!” Other than being an avid trekker, Farista is also an animal lover and she does not do anything by halves. The pretty girl takes an active interest in animal rescues and has brought countless strays to her home. At one point, her family jokingly threatened to disown her. “I volunteer for some animal welfare organisations and sometimes when the shelters get full, I bring the strays home, which is when I get threatened by my parents.” She lets us in on a secret, “I have always loved animals and wanted to be a zookeeper and now a Wildlife Conservation Officer.” Farista also plans to do a course in Environmental Studies in New Zealand and wants to travel the world and work with NGOs in environment-related projects. Farista has plans to trek to bigger peaks and before ending says, "Travelling and trekking  is all what I want to do!”