 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It’s moving day.
The men of HAWS are being dispatched
to an unknown location.
For 3 days & 2 nights, soldiers will survive in the wild.
On high alert for stormy weather and enemy fire.
To become a mountain warrior one has to master all the aspects of mountain survival.
They have to exercise their mind, their physical capability
to survive in an inhospitable environment, harsh weather, dipping temperature and survive
in shelters prepared by them and survive for 72 hours
which are prepared by themselves.
Survival hinges on the bare essentials.
Personal weapons, basic tools & dry rations
In actual combat they will have to chop fresh wood.
Luckily for both the men & the forest, each batch of HAWS recycles its building logs.
The men will climb up the equivalent of 6 Qutab Minars.
The destination: Survival top at 10,500 ft.
The bugle has sounded.
The men are given just 20 minutes to build their camp.
Not meeting this deadline, will have harsh consequences
 
We're on such a height, there’s glacier and temperatures sometimes go below zero also.
And in a period of 2-3 days there’s been rain, what we’ve experienced.
So the focus was to make a shelter that’ll be windproof and rainproof. That was the toughest part.
They must build fast and build smart.
Because at any time, the weather gods could have a mood swing.
It was really difficult to make those shelters in the stipulated 15-20 mins.
The deadline has come & gone.
The men will pay for missing it – sooner or later.
So it was definitely a Herculean task to make.
And after an effort of 3-4 hours, we ended up making a shelter
that was having a big hole in the roof
Then there was some clouds coming in and we had a little bit of drizzle for 5 mins.
Even though it was not raining heavily.
So 3-4 hours of efforts all went to vain just because of the 5 mins drizzle.
Even as some are forced to rebuild from scratch...
the camp has finally ready
Now it's time to light the campfires.
We had to prepare our food in complete isolation, ensuring this thing that no one sees us.
First night was a bit difficult.
The food that we prepared ourselves was also not as good
as the food we get prepared from the kitchen.
Finally it’s time to sleep.
But will the shelters survive the night?
First night was initially painful.
It was instructed to us to make the entrance opposite to the wind.
We did not take that factor into consideration so a strong cold wind kept on coming in throughout the night.
We had to block the entrance using our backpack
The trainees spend a miserable night, mostly of their own making.
