# @kanchan_balani on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DelTfwOEu4f
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/71743281-kanchan-balani-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/3fae42c3bc.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-10-17T04:58:47.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Kanchan (@kanchan_balani) — https://gondola.cc/kanchan_balani

## Caption

12,345 ft. That’s the altitude of Phulara Ridge. The number called out to me. I knew I had to do this. Given how broken everything in the country feels right now, getting to walk up a mountain for a week is a shitload of privilege. I knew that going in. 

Everyone on a high-altitude trek has a reason for being there. For Hansal and me, it’s become our yearly thing. We go every year, and every year it feels like a homecoming. What still surprises me is that after all this time together, the mountains keep showing us new sides of each other. Up there you can’t pretend. 

This climb took me to the edge of what I had. There was a moment when I was certain there was nothing left in me. Then there was a little more still left. And this time, I fell flat on my face only once lol. That’s progress. And it was entirely my fault. The mules were just going about their day. I also came back with a nose that is completely baked. Coming to the heart of it all: the people. The guides and locals who take pahad ki kasam more seriously than most of us take anything. Some of the kindest people/trekkers I got to meet this time. 

We don’t need much to be happy. And we definitely don’t need to keep buying things. Capitalism is killing us all. It hurts so much to see what we are doing to our mountains. We keep digging, cutting, taking. When will we stop extracting? When there’s nothing left?

On Day 4, we walked through Govind National Park, and I cried a little because of how beautiful the forest was. The waterfall, the birdsong, the light coming through the trees in pieces. It felt like the whole forest and especially the Himalayan Bulbuls and our companion Jimmy, the mountain dog were gently telling me how freaking small I am. In front of them, nobody is more important than anybody else. We are all equal and we have the right to be. 

There’s a mountainly sense of being that settles into you up there. Of being tiny and somehow still enough. No bloody therapy session has ever done for me what these pahad have. We have so little time on this planet. Might as well do all the good that we can. We are so, so lucky this exists.

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 0
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 5

## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Kanchan | @kanchan_balani | https://gondola.cc/kanchan_balani | Consultant |

---
Copyright (c) Gondola