Ending and Graduation - BMC Part 4

This section will cover the final days of the course, the graduation ceremony, and my reflections on completing the BMC.
I will also include thoughts on future plans and advice for prospective students.

Returning back to HMI

After the height gain, we descended back to the Yuksom. The hike back took us 2 days. On day one we reached Tshoka, followed by a hike to Yuksom on the next day. We had lunch at Yuksom and returned to HMI by the evening.

It felt great to return back to civilization. We stopped on the way and bought a bunch of junk food. We were all very excited and very sun-burnt. Back at the institute we treated ourselves to a much needed shower. It was indeed a relief.

We had a written test the following day; which was not too difficult. Once the test was over, we had a small rehearsal session for the graduation ceremony. Our batch was graduating with the search and rescue course as well, so we had a combined graduation ceremony. It was all very procedural and felt robotic.

Before the actual graduation we had an interview with the senior instructors. This was also nothing special, we were asked about our impression of the course and what not.

The graduation ceremony was over and soon it was time to say our goodbyes and leave.

My Overall Impression

I really enjoyed the course, however if I had a chance to do it all over again, I would not. Let me qualify that statement.
Climbing in India is still in the nascent stages and it is largely a institution led event. There are very few non-institutional climbing groups in the country. That said, these attitudes are changing.

The only reason for me to get a BMC is to have a certificate which will let me bypass a lot of the red-tape that is in place. That's it.

Moreover the style of climbing I enjoy is very different. I know I am punching above my weight when I say this, but I enjoy alpine style climbing, which is very different from the expedition style climbing that is prevalent here.

If anybody wants to stay in the system and complete all the courses and become an instructor in India, then all the courses make sense. For me, my goals are different and thus, they do not make sense.

Future Plans

During the course I was going through a phase where I was thinking about pursuing mountaineering full-time as a career and even spoke to some people for guidance / employment.

I enjoy climbing as a hobby and I do not want to turn this into a career for myself. I was thinking about it and some of my friends will know about the brain-cycles that I have spent thinking about this.