While most girls her age get to watch adventure sports on TV with the occasional trek or trip into the wilderness, 17-year-old Deeya Bajaj is already back from her second skiing expedition across Greenland, all in the name of a charity she supports and some adrenalin rush
While most girls her age get to watch adventure sports on TV with the occasional trek or trip into the wilderness, 17-year-old Deeya Bajaj is already back from her second skiing expedition across Greenland, all in the name of a charity she supports and some adrenalin rush
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Seventeen-year-old Deeya Bajaj, a student of Sri Ram School, Delhi, is ecstatic after her recent skiing expedition across the icescapes of Greenland over 19 days. She says, "No one can understand why I would go out and do things like this, unless they actually go out and do it themselves. There's something indescribable about being in the outdoors, with no communication with the outside world whatsoever. And it's really about pushing yourself to the limit."
Deeya is a veteran of not one but two adventure expeditions to Greenland already. Touted as the youngest Indian to have skied across the hard topography of Greenland under sub zero temperature conditions with a team of eight adventurers that included her father, Deeya previously accompanied her dad Ajeet Bajaj, mountaineer and founder of the travel company Snow Leopard Adventures, as a 14-year-old to Greenland on a sea kayaking expedition in 2008. "The expedition was to ski across the Greenland icecap from the west to the east, a distance of around 550 kms. It took us 19 days, skiing at an average of 30 kms each day," says Deeya. She covered a distance of 650 kms under average temperatures of minus 40 C and wind speeds of over 80 miles per hour.
Deeya, who stumbled into skiing literally on a family holiday in Turkey when she was all of 13, credits her dad for creating an opportunity for her to take part and complete this expedition. "My father loves the outdoors, and has been on many such expeditions himself. He was the first Indian to ski to both the North and the South Poles. And when he got invited to this expedition, I asked him if I could come along. Though he was hesitant at first, he later agreed," she says.
Get set go
In the month leading up to the expedition that began onu00a0 May 13 and went on till the end of the month, Deeya put in rigorous training that included a five-kilometre run everyday and light weight training at the gym. Gear for the expedition was bought and double checked on. "The most crucial bit in such extreme expeditions is extensive preparation taking into account worst case scenarios," she says. Deeya also took up some downhill ski-ing practice before the expedition, in Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir though what she did eventually was cross country skiing across a flat area as opposed to slopes.
Not just a skiing holiday
Deeya and her team skied for 19 days, making stopovers at night after doing around 30 kms of skiing everyday for roughly eight hours. For her, the whole idea of just being surrounded by glittering, white ice was a little strange initially. "Before I started the trip, the entire concept of seeing just white ice for the next 19 days was weird - mainly because it's hard to imagine that kind of snow but after a few days I did get used to it. It was hard skiing for eight hours everyday and at the beginningu00a0 of the expedition, I remember being extremely tired. But soon enough I got into the rhythm of things," she says.u00a0
Dealing with the shivers
According to Deeya, the real challenge was dealing with the cold and the wind chill factor. "If you stood still outside your tent for even a second, your fingers would freeze. The wind was another challenge. Sometimes it would get to even 30kmph and while skiing it would actually knock me down if I was going in the opposite direction," she says. Along with her dad, Deeya had four experienced adventurers and two natives from Greenland who came along with their husky sledges, for company. There was a larger motive behind this expedition and torturous journey. It was to raise enough funds from sponsors tou00a0u00a0 build a girls' wing of an orphanage in Haridwar which, until recently, had a residential facility only for boys. The initiative isu00a0 supported by Deeya's parents.
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