The days or weeks of travel to the foot of the Snows require an outfit distinct from that required for high mountaineering. The extent of the travelling outfit depends primarily upon the time and money at the disposal of the individual. A camp-bed and an 80-lb. Kabul tent, ordered beforehand from the Elgin Mills at Cawnpore or through the A. & N. Stores at Bombay, is worth serious consideration. Personally, I prefer a Whymper tent, with an extra fly to keep the sun off and with the floor-cloth sewn in. A Whymper tent can also be used by the cook and followers, without the double fly and with a loose floor-cloth; if this is sewn in, it is apt to get burned when fires are lighted inside the tent on wet evenings.
On all railway journeys, in most bungalows—public and private—and even in some hotels, bedding must be carried. A very thin cork or hair mattress is a luxury; the sleeping-bag does nearly as well. Two Jaeger sheets, two Jaeger blankets, a pillow and a couple of pillow-cases, aided by a bath towel, really suffice. The whole is wrapped up and strapped in a strong ground sheet laced down the middle, or in a more complicated valise sold in India. This bundle constitutes the bistra, one coolie-load; it should be as rain- and vermin-proof as possible.
A folding X-table and chair are almost necessary concessions to caste. A spare chair should be available if natives of chair rank are likely to be met. An india-rubber or canvas bath is also necessary for other purposes. When bathing in the open, as before said, drawers at least should always be worn out of respect for native sentiment. Toilet kit is carried in an enamelled iron basin with a leather cover, called a chilamchi.
Cooking vessels (degchis) should be of aluminium, but cups and plates and teapot may be enamel-ware. Either hurricane lanterns (kerosene), or candle-lanterns that can stand on a table, are necessary in camp. All these should be obtained from the A. & N. or other stores in India.
Food.
As to food, the necessary tinned butter, biscuits, jam and other groceries can be bought at the last hill station. In most places in the hills sheep or goats can be bought as required. Farther on you must bring your own live stock along with you; this should ensure milk of sorts. Chickens and eggs, rice and native flour (ata), can be purchased in most villages.
On the glaciers, cocoa, chocolate or tea, with plasmon, are needed for breakfast, and, for the evening, maggi (vegetable) soups with rice. At the highest camps by far the best drink is some sort of dried malted milk preparation, like Horlick’s or Allen & Hanbury’s diet. The above must be brought out from England, unless it is found to be obtainable from the A. & N. Stores in Bombay.
The High Camp Outfit.
The tent should be the Mummery pattern if carried by yourself, but may be Whymper pattern if coolies are still available. Ice-axes can be lengthened to serve as tent poles, if desired, by means of a piece of hollow bamboo 10 or 12 inches long which is slipped over the point. The bamboo must be bound round with wire at the end to prevent splitting. In bad weather a small ventilator to the tent is necessary, as it may be found impossible to open the door. Sleeping-bags can be made of any thickness and warmth of goose-down. Balloon-silk should be sewn underneath the bag, and brought up for at least 18 inches over the feet. At high altitudes only a primus stove, burning kerosene, will serve. Absolute alcohol should be carried to start the apparatus, and a flat strip of perforated brass as a wind-shield is necessary. The primus stove and reserve of kerosene, in old petrol tins, must not be carried in the same load with any food. This must be specially remembered during the whole of the expedition.
It is a good plan to camp not later than 3 p.m., and to start melting snow at once. The first melting will probably be drunk tepid. Then the evening meal, or rather drink, of soup or cocoa or malted milk must be taken; following this, while the stove is still alive, more snow should be melted and the morning’s drink prepared. If this is placed in large thermos-bottles inside the sleeping-bags it will last, if untouched, till the following afternoon.