This was Brahmatal during Christmas time last year. The plight of Kedarkantha was worse.
Measures like restricting group sizes and number of batches although effective were not enough to tackle this highly skewed inflow of trekkers into the mountains.
If these trends continued, it wouldn’t be long before popular trails like Hampta Pass, Brahmatal and Kedarkantha get banned.
This sporadic inflow has had immediate consequences on the ecosystems of treks like the Chadar Zanskar.
Deep Shah, who went on the Chadar Trek with us recounts the following incident. He was a part of one of the last few batches that completed the trek before the frozen ice gave in and we had to call off all our batches.
“Attempting the Chadar Trek has been a dream of mine for a long time. But little was I aware of the life altering experience that awaited me in some of natures’ extremes.
While returning from the summit, a frozen section of the river had broken down. We were stuck on a small island for the night with no way forward. With people from other trekking groups also camping there, there were over 200 of us on that small island that day. And all of us were hoping the river would freeze again overnight.
But the ice did not form the next morning. So it was decided that the river would be crossed by foot. And thus began our adventure.
We held onto ropes for support and stepped into the icy waters of the Zanskar River bracing ourselves against the cold.
With each step forward, the water levels rose steadily seeping slowly into our gum boots and gradually rising all the way up to our waists sending our bodies into a state of shock. I could hear shrieks and yelps from behind me as I crossed the river.
Once we stepped onto frozen ice we were instructed to quickly change into dry clothes and empty our boots of water. I sat down on the icy floor and tried to remove my gum boots only to find them stuck! The boots were frozen. My trek leader asked me to warm myself up by moving around continuously to get the boots off.
It was an experience that was both horrific and exciting.”- Deep Shah
What the industry needs to do at the moment is spread the bookings received evenly across the week.
The idea of introducing dynamic pricing on our treks popped up around this time. Although uncommon in the trekking industry, it seemed the perfect solution to the problem that confronted us.
“When we sat down to brainstorm the idea, we studied the models of other competent industries that engaged in services similar to ours. In particular we looked into the pricing models of Airlines and Movie Theatres.
If you book a flight on a weekday or a movie in the morning show, you are likely to get better offers because of low demand during these dates / times. Selling at lower prices on less sought after dates/times not only helped them utilize their capacity better but also helped pass on the benefits to the customers” – Girish, One of our Founders
We feel introducing a Dynamic Pricing System on our treks is not only the right step forward but also a necessary one to adopt given the current trends.
So after much thought, research and discussion, we zealously began building an algorithm in January.
“The algorithm incentivises bookings made on less sought after days, dates and trails by offering a greater quantum of discounts.
The idea is to not only incentivise bookings made during the weekdays but also encourage trekkers to make their bookings early. This in turn would give them enough time to prepare well for the trek/expedition.
So if you could arrange with your work place to move your holidays by a bit, one could actually end up saving big by booking their treks under less sought after batch dates.
There were other collateral benefits to this move as well. For instance, an even inflow ensures a regular source of income to some of our mountain staff like our diligent porters or the lovely locals running guest houses in the region.
The trails would also look far more pristine and beautiful with less crowd.
And finally there is the best part of it all: the much needed respite this would bring to the eco-system of our Mountains! ”, – Girish.
