User:Vaibhav Kala

Born February 16, 1972, belongs wo Sumari village in uttarakhand, Garhwal Himalaya.Moving all over the country as a young child of a services officer, he graduated from St. Stephens College, Delhi University. Besides having  trekked and traveled extensively in  the  Indian  Himalaya since 1985 (in Garhwal and  Kumaon,  Zanskar,  Nubra, Ladakh, Changthang, Lahaul and Spiti,  Kinnaur  and Arunachal  Pradesh),  has also been on big mountaineering  and white  water rafting expeditions since college and has climbed in  Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh. He worked as a professional river guide since 1992 and has  since been  involved in a number of  high-altitude exploratory mountain trips  and major raft descents and expeditions. In March, 1995, he started an outdoor adventure travel company. AQUA TERRA  ADVENTURES (INDIA) PRIVATE LIMITED has since been running  trips  into  Ladakh,  Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Sikkim,  Assam, Orissa  and Arunachal Pradesh.

River & Mountain Experience:

(a) Member of a 5-man team to win the Avinder Singh Brar Initiative award for Remote Mountain Area research and exploration in 1991. (b) Member  of  a  mountain  expedition  to  Bhetiara  Ka  Danda (19,000ft) in the Khatling glacier region in Garhwal (1991). (c) Member of a mountain expedition to Bhartekunta (21,707ft)  in the  Gangotri   glacier  in   Garhwal  (1992). (d) Member of a 4 man alpine style attempt on CB-13 (20,000ft) in the Lahaul  valley  in  Himachal   Pradesh (1993). (e) Member of an expedition to Mt. Gya (6794 mts) in the Rupshu area in 1994. It was the first attempt on this remote mountain on the  tri-junction  of  Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and  Tibet. (f) Has  been a  professional  white  water  rafting guide since 1992. (g) Has done  numerous  descents on the Ganga river (h) Has done numerous descents on the Beas river (i) Has  rafted the main  tributary of the Ganga, the Bhagirathi river (Tehri-Devprayag) numerous times. (j) Has rafted  the  main tributary of the Ganga, the Alaknanda river (Rudraprayag-Devprayag) numerous times. (k) Rafted  on the   first   commercial rafting  trip  on the Spiti  river (Kiato-Poh) in 1992. (l) Was part of  a  3-man  rafting  instructor's team which trained the  combatant  units of the  Indian army on various rivers in  Arunachal Pradesh in 1994. (m) River  guide  on  the  first  descent of the Subansari river (Taliha-North Lakhimpur),  the  biggest   tributary   of the Brahmaputra  river in Arunachal Pradesh in 1994. (n) River guide on the second descent of the Subansari river in 1994. Opened up Subansari to commercial runs from 2005 onwards. (o) River guide on  an  army expedition on the Brahmaputra river  (Tuting-Pasighat) in 1994. (p) River guide on the first raft descent of the Lohit river (Kibithu-Parashuram Kund) in  Arunachal Pradesh in 1994. (q)    River guide and co-ordinator on the filming of the Alaknanda  river expedition for Doordarshan, in December,  1995. (r)     Member of a trekking team which crossed the Parang la  (19,000 ft; Spiti-Ladakh) and Wari La (17,000 ft; Leh-Nubra) passes in 1996. (s) River guide  and  co-ordination of filming on the first raft  trip   on   the   Chambal   river   bordering   Rajasthan  &  Madhya Pradesh in 1997. (t) River guide on the Kali river expedition with Kumaon Mandal Vikas  Nigam in December, to film a documentary 1997 (Jhulaghat - Boom). (u) Opened up the Upper Brahmaputra with a classic high water run in 2002 which featured on PADDLER magazine, the NEW YORK TIMES and many other international publications. This trip was run at a never before high water level in November 2002. Successful expeditions on the Brahmaputra have been run each year since 2002. (v) Planned and organized the first complete descent of the Lohit in 2003. (w) Organised and guided on the first open commercial expedition down the Sutlej river in 2004 (x) Rafted the Zanskar gorge numerous times and executed a filming trip down it in August 2004. Also ran the filming trip of the first Indian descent of the Total Tons Tonnage trip, which ran the entire Tons river, also the first time in 19 years, in May 2005. (y) Guided on the last descent of the Yangtze river, Yunan, China 2007 (z) Guided on the Karnali river, Nepal, 2010 (z) Zambezi river, Africa September 2010

As a leading adventure travel expert, Vaibhav also runs an adventure company, Aquaterra Adventures. Aquaterra Adventures (www.aquaterra.in) is the only Indian company to be rated twice in a row as Best Adventure Travel Outfitters on Earth, in a global survey by National Geographic Society, 2008 & 2009