“Chalo,” said our soft-spoken trail guide, Sushil, after a quick water break some 3,000 meters above sea level. “Let’s go.” My sister and I followed him, digging our hiking poles into the dirt path in front of us as he picked up pace.
We were two days into our four-day trek with a Dharamsala-based outfitter called Hill Hikers, making our way to a mountain pass in the Dhauladhar range of the Indian Himalayas. It had been ages since I last went backpacking, but a lateblooming (and somewhat embarrassing) obsession with K-pop had nudged me back into a fitness routine. In the lead-up to the trip, I committed myself to two short runs and two short HIIT workouts every week, energized by a soundtrack of experimental K-hip-hop by the likes of NCT 127.
