7. Could you live here: Kibber, India

[alaskanseminole]

Kibber is a tiny village in India's Spiti Valley, sitting at roughly 14,000 feet above sea level in the Himalayas. Home to only a few hundred people, it is one of the highest permanently inhabited villages in the world. There are no trees, very little rainfall, and the landscape is essentially a massive high-altitude desert surrounded by enormous mountains. Winters are long, brutally cold, and heavy snow can isolate the village for months.

The nearest significant town is Kaza, several hours away by road. During the winter, travel can become extremely difficult. Medical care is limited, shopping options are minimal, and there certainly isn't a quick trip to Walmart. But Kibber isn't completely cut off. The village has electricity, a school, basic shops, a monastery, and guesthouses. Farming and livestock remain important parts of daily life.

And then there's the wildlife.

Kibber sits next to the Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary, where snow leopards, Himalayan ibex, blue sheep, wolves and red foxes roam. Snow leopard sightings are actually one of the reasons people travel to this remote corner of India. The scenery is spectacular...towering Himalayan peaks, enormous empty valleys, clear skies and virtually no light pollution. Life is quiet, simple, and deeply connected to the environment.

But at 14,000 feet, even simple things become more difficult. The cold, altitude, isolation and lack of modern conveniences would be a dealbreaker for a lot of people.





Previous HROT installments:
1. Could you live here: Supai, Arizona
2. Could you live here: Kerguelen Islands
3. Could you live here: La Rinconada, Peru (Andes Mountains)
4. Could you live here: Tristan da Cunha

HROTe installments:
5. Could you live here: Oymyakon, Siberia
6. Could you live here: Pitcairn Island

 

[Stoopsbrother]

 

[Gibbs_dontbanmetom]

Could I? I’m sure if I really wanted to I could. Would I want to? No, for multiple reasons.

 

[Hydro2.0]

I would never live anywhere in India ever

 

[hawkeyetraveler]

Hell to the no…csb below:

I shared this on the old site. I hiked to the top of Mount Whitney with a buddy a couple years ago (Whitney elevation similar to this village at 14,600 feet). Well it turns out that one of the symptoms of altitude sickness is … a loosening of the bowels.

Between the two of us (coming from sea level) we sh*t on the trail 18 times over the course of maybe 8 hours.

I learned then that altitude can kick your a$$…from the inside out as it were.

 

[alaskanseminole]

I learned then that altitude can kick your a$$…from the inside out as it were.

Ooof, sounds like it. Been on some peaks in Alaska, but not high enough (apparently) to make me sick.

 

[Thefunksouljon]

Hell to the no…csb below:

I shared this on the old site. I hiked to the top of Mount Whitney with a buddy a couple years ago (Whitney elevation similar to this village at 14,600 feet). Well it turns out that one of the symptoms of altitude sickness is … a loosening of the bowels.

Between the two of us (coming from sea level) we sh*t on the trail 18 times over the course of maybe 8 hours.

I learned then that altitude can kick your a$$…from the inside out as it were.

It takes some folks days if ever to acclimate. My buddy fly from upstate NY to COS, they went to the top of Pikes Peak on the next day and spent way too much time. Entire next day they were both zonked and just stayed in the hotel.

I have never heard about loosening of the bowels. Thats kind of funny.

We lived in COS for years and went to Peru for a trip, spent most of the time up high, Cusco/Puno etc which is 10k+. I had zero issues but definitely could feel the effects of the coca leaves when I'd use them, definitely think living high, acclimating and the coca made the trip easy for us.

 

[Thefunksouljon]

Back to the OP, I don't think I'd want to live so remote and simple. Unless I was training in martial arts to fight crime. Then I could do it for a little bit.

 

[St. Louis Hawk]

How’s their biryani and chicken 65?

 

[LiveFreeOrDie97]

Wouldn't want to live there but the Spiti Valley is beautiful. It's a growing hotbed of Indian adventure sports that they've known about for quite some time, but westerners are just figuring out. I'd hang in Kibber for a few months.

 

[hawkeyetraveler]

It takes some folks days if ever to acclimate. My buddy fly from upstate NY to COS, they went to the top of Pikes Peak on the next day and spent way too much time. Entire next day they were both zonked and just stayed in the hotel.

I have never heard about loosening of the bowels. Thats kind of funny.

We lived in COS for years and went to Peru for a trip, spent most of the time up high, Cusco/Puno etc which is 10k+. I had zero issues but definitely could feel the effects of the coca leaves when I'd use them, definitely think living high, acclimating and the coca made the trip easy for us.

Yeah we thought for sure we had food poisoning while it was all happening. It was only afterwards that we learned this is a somewhat common side effect.

The funniest part of the whole saga: once you get up to around 14k feet the trail skirts the side of the mountain and is maybe 5 feet wide. Whelp, wouldn’t you know nature made a 911 emergency call right then. There was nowhere else to go so I popped a squat right in the middle of the trail. As I’m in the middle of the business a dad comes around the corner of the trail with his family behind him. We make eye contact…the horror on his face had to be echoed by mine. He promptly turns his family around. Of course then I get a case of shy-bowels. I‘m sure it was only 5 minutes or so, but it felt like I squatted there for an hour in wrenching gut pain trying to move things along.

So yeah - fun times were had by all.

 

[GesterHawk]

Back to the OP, I don't think I'd want to live so remote and simple. Unless I was training in martial arts to fight crime. Then I could do it for a little bit.

Or the mystic arts to fight aliens.

 

[GesterHawk]

I get altitude sickness fairly strongly, so I would probably die before I could acclimate.

 

[Gibbs_dontbanmetom]

Yeah we thought for sure we had food poisoning while it was all happening. It was only afterwards that we learned this is a somewhat common side effect.

The funniest part of the whole saga: once you get up to around 14k feet the trail skirts the side of the mountain and is maybe 5 feet wide. Whelp, wouldn’t you know nature made a 911 emergency call right then. There was nowhere else to go so I popped a squat right in the middle of the trail. As I’m in the middle of the business a dad comes around the corner of the trail with his family behind him. We make eye contact…the horror on his face had to be echoed by mine. He promptly turns his family around. Of course then I get a case of shy-bowels. I‘m sure it was only 5 minutes or so, but it felt like I squatted there for an hour in wrenching gut pain trying to move things along.

So yeah - fun times were had by all.

What a sh.itty thing to do to that family. They had to turn around as a result. Probably had to follow your crap the whole way up too.

 

[AFM22]

I’d rather live in western Iowa

 

[Finance85]

I don't think there's much living going on there. Existing perhaps, but not really living. I guess they prefer it to existing in other parts of India. I don't think they have to worry about Trump bothering them.

 

[dpic73]

Yeah we thought for sure we had food poisoning while it was all happening. It was only afterwards that we learned this is a somewhat common side effect.

The funniest part of the whole saga: once you get up to around 14k feet the trail skirts the side of the mountain and is maybe 5 feet wide. Whelp, wouldn’t you know nature made a 911 emergency call right then. There was nowhere else to go so I popped a squat right in the middle of the trail. As I’m in the middle of the business a dad comes around the corner of the trail with his family behind him. We make eye contact…the horror on his face had to be echoed by mine. He promptly turns his family around. Of course then I get a case of shy-bowels. I‘m sure it was only 5 minutes or so, but it felt like I squatted there for an hour in wrenching gut pain trying to move things along.

So yeah - fun times were had by all.

My question is why the middle of the trail and not off on the mountain side?

 

[hawkeyetraveler]

My question is why the middle of the trail and not off on the mountain side?

Something about losing my balance squatting with a 1000+ foot sheer drop

 

[GOHOX69]

Let's see how many racists out themselves.

 

[BelemNole]

Hell to the no…csb below:

I shared this on the old site. I hiked to the top of Mount Whitney with a buddy a couple years ago (Whitney elevation similar to this village at 14,600 feet). Well it turns out that one of the symptoms of altitude sickness is … a loosening of the bowels.

Between the two of us (coming from sea level) we sh*t on the trail 18 times over the course of maybe 8 hours.

I learned then that altitude can kick your a$$…from the inside out as it were.

When we hiked Whitney we did two days and camped at trail camp just below the switchbacks. I felt great the first day while most others in the group suffered from the altitude. The second day? I turned around at trail crest (top of the switch backs) and spend the afternoon in the shi.tter by camp.

Still, crapping mid trail? That's low.

 

[dpic73]

Something about losing my balance squatting with a 1000+ foot sheer drop

Ah, a drop on both sides...I misunderstood, sh*t away then.

 

[hawkeyetraveler]

Ah, a drop on both sides...I misunderstood, sh*t away then.

One side was the mountain going more or less straight up. Then a 5 foot wide trail (or so) then the cliff. So there wasn’t much wiggle room. Also to be clear I had no agency in the matter…the dam was about to burst. I was lucky to even have time to get the pants down.

 

[hawkeyetraveler]

When we hiked Whitney we did two days and camped at trail camp just below the switchbacks. I felt great the first day while most others in the group suffered from the altitude. The second day? I turned around at trail crest (top of the switch backs) and spend the afternoon in the shi.tter by camp.

Still, crapping mid trail? That's low.

Yeah this was the trail between trail crest and the summit. Maybe 1/4 mile past trail crest.

 

[JWolf74]

Would I do it for a large amount of money for a year? Yeah, probably. Live forever? Hell no.

 

[Finance85]

Let's see how many racists out themselves.

Please explain.

 

[LiveFreeOrDie97]

Let's see how many racists out themselves.

Just keep going back to my post and re-reading it for all the good feels. Remember when I told you I was going to be hanging with your countrymen for a few months? The Spiti is beautiful.

 

[FowerShart]

I wonder what their showers are like

 

[lucas80]

I’d rather live in western Iowa

Talk about a place that is remote, sparsely populated, and causes someone to have loose bowels.

 

[lucas80]

Let's see how many racists out themselves.

Do I count if I say it looks like the place Apu went to see the leader of the Kwik E Mart Corporation?

 

[lucas80]

Kibber is a tiny village in India's Spiti Valley, sitting at roughly 14,000 feet above sea level in the Himalayas. Home to only a few hundred people, it is one of the highest permanently inhabited villages in the world. There are no trees, very little rainfall, and the landscape is essentially a massive high-altitude desert surrounded by enormous mountains. Winters are long, brutally cold, and heavy snow can isolate the village for months.

The nearest significant town is Kaza, several hours away by road. During the winter, travel can become extremely difficult. Medical care is limited, shopping options are minimal, and there certainly isn't a quick trip to Walmart. But Kibber isn't completely cut off. The village has electricity, a school, basic shops, a monastery, and guesthouses. Farming and livestock remain important parts of daily life.

And then there's the wildlife.

Kibber sits next to the Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary, where snow leopards, Himalayan ibex, blue sheep, wolves and red foxes roam. Snow leopard sightings are actually one of the reasons people travel to this remote corner of India. The scenery is spectacular...towering Himalayan peaks, enormous empty valleys, clear skies and virtually no light pollution. Life is quiet, simple, and deeply connected to the environment.

But at 14,000 feet, even simple things become more difficult. The cold, altitude, isolation and lack of modern conveniences would be a dealbreaker for a lot of people.

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Previous HROT installments:
1. Could you live here: Supai, Arizona
2. Could you live here: Kerguelen Islands
3. Could you live here: La Rinconada, Peru (Andes Mountains)
4. Could you live here: Tristan da Cunha

HROTe installments:
5. Could you live here: Oymyakon, Siberia
6. Could you live here: Pitcairn Island

That's a big no on #3. I'm currently reading a book about Capt. James Cook's third voyage to the Pacific, and he stopped there. I believe Michael Palin's book Erebus had a chapter on his stop there as he traced the voyage of the Antarctic explorers. It does not sound like a fun place unless you like raging winds, rain, penguin poop, and eternally dark skies.

 

[GOHOX69]

Do I count if I say it looks like the place Apu went to see the leader of the Kwik E Mart Corporation?

Apu is a racist trope. Thankfully, unlike 1988, Indian Americans control most of Silicon Valley and Biotech and Fin tech and hell everything corporate. No other diaspora has done more in a shorter period of time. So who cares what people post? It's just hilarious jealousy at this point.

 

[Scrubby]

Apu is a racist trope. Thankfully, unlike 1988, Indian Americans control most of Silicon Valley and Biotech and Fin tech and hell everything corporate. No other diaspora has done more in a shorter period of time. So who cares what people post? It's just hilarious jealousy at this point.

You didn't even mention the monopoly you people have on call centers and 711s!

 

[McLovin32]

Apu is a racist trope. Thankfully, unlike 1988, Indian Americans control most of Silicon Valley and Biotech and Fin tech and hell everything corporate. No other diaspora has done more in a shorter period of time. So who cares what people post? It's just hilarious jealousy at this point.

wat

 

[AFM22]

wat

It's just hilarious jealousy at this point.

 

[lucas80]

Apu is a racist trope. Thankfully, unlike 1988, Indian Americans control most of Silicon Valley and Biotech and Fin tech and hell everything corporate. No other diaspora has done more in a shorter period of time. So who cares what people post? It's just hilarious jealousy at this point.

Meh. All cops are fat like Chief Wiggums? All comic book store owners are fat with pony tails? All teachers like Ms. Krabapple are ******?
Well, maybe that one is true.

 

[GOHOX69]

Meh. All cops are fat like Chief Wiggums? All comic book store owners are fat with pony tails? All teachers like Ms. Krabapple are ******?
Well, maybe that one is true.

Nah man. It ain't cool.

 

[Hawkfan_08*]

I would never live anywhere in India ever

I think this is my answer for many reasons.