Trekking
Precautions | Essential Skills | Common Terms
Precautions

While going for a trekking tour, you have to take extra precautions and make sure to pay out a few extra bucks and your time to choose the correct boots, otherwise half of your trip will be in pain. Spend little more time to get a correct size of your shoes as poor-fitting shoes can be tormenting on a long trek. Go for a brand with a diverse variety of widths, some companies also offer narrow as well as wide boots. Women trekkers should go for a 'gender-specific boot', that have an anatomically accurate shape called as a "last". You have to be sure enough that your toes do not touch the end of the laced-up boots when you walk down a slope, and also the heel doesn't lift more than a quarter of an inch when you walk. Start with beginner-rated trails of a mile or less and then work your way up to longer, more difficult hikes. Normally a signboard is always there at the trailhead that shows the route length, also always mark your time and effort respectively as the posted mileage is typically one-way.

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Essential Skills

Taking up a trekking adventure, with a pack thong to your back doesn't demand extra ordinary skill or co-ordination, but demands planning, the selection of right equipment, and of course the plain old common sense. Skills that are demanded for hiking apply to any outdoor adventure. Hiker should have the knowledge of basic first aid- how to bandage a wound, apply moleskin, and notice the symptoms of dehydration and heatstroke. Learn how to read clouds; knowing radiance from a cumulus can be the difference between a drenched cloud and a simply cloudy one. While on a trek, you have to make it to the day's destination. Altitudes above 14,000 feet or upright gains of more than 2,000 feet per day need excellent physical fitness. The coaches can appraise your physical health level, but if you have any problem like nausea or shortness of breath allied with high altitudes, be cautious and take the prescribed medicines along with you

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Common Terms

Loop trail:  A trail that starts at a certain point and reaches back to the same point.
Scare slope:  A rigorous inclination of loose rock and crushed rock.
Saddle:  A tour extended over the rock-bottom sight between two peaks, identical like a seat.
Aiming off:  It helps in knowing exactly which way to turn to get to your destination.

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