Aquaterra Adventures flew all 29 people off Auden's Col Base Camp on 28 September 2026. The New Delhi operator published a case study of the evacuation, prepared for the State of Uttarakhand. It carries the timeline, the agency roles and twelve recommendations for other operators.
Snow began at base camp on the night of 25 September. More than six feet fell in 48 hours, the case study states. The group reached camp that day, one day short of the planned 26 September crossing of the Col. Six of the 29 were clients. Guides, kitchen staff and porters made up the other 23.
A day of lead time
Aquaterra requested helicopter evacuation at 08:10 on 27 September, before any flying window had opened. The request went to the District Magistrate in Uttarkashi, the Secretary Tourism in Dehradun and the DIG of the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority. The case study treats that hour as the point where the rescue became possible.
The plan was agreed with the District Magistrate at 13:28. Six helicopters would stage at Harsil, with Jhala as the operating base and two recce flights first. NDRF and SDRF high-altitude teams reached the Sahastradhara helipad by 14:03. The Air Force held a Chinook at Haldwani and three aircraft at Sarsawa from 22:25. A land team left at 21:38 to break trail in case no aircraft could reach the camp.
Six agencies worked to that plan. The state operation covered 136 stranded people across the district, and Auden's Col ranked first among the groups. Vaibhav Kala, the operator's founder, joined the government rescue group at 06:22 on the morning of the lift.
Satellite phone on a fixed schedule
Mobile signal ends beyond Gangotri. The satellite phone was the only link between base camp and head office for three days. The team rationed battery through set call times. The handset stayed at camp until the final sortie left.
"Training, and doing the small things right, each and every time is what counts in adventure travel," Kala said.
Recommendation two asks operators to carry satellite communication as standard on high passes, with spare power. The case study records the fixed call times as the reason the link held.
Itineraries filed before the trail
Permit documents went in between 5 and 11 September: identity documents, travel insurance and medical certificates. Names and details sat on record before the first snow. The case study gives that filing as part of why the evacuation moved quickly.
Recommendation four asks for a day-wise itinerary, name lists, locations and permits submitted to government before a group gains access to the trail. A group already on a government list needs no identity check before a helicopter can land.
Landing zone and sortie plan
The team stamped out and marked a 10 by 10 metre landing zone before first light on 28 September. A video briefing with the lead pilot the previous day fixed its position and covered crowd management and sortie loads. The lift ran one sortie of two people, then nine of three, with a refuel every three sorties.
People flew. Bags stayed on the mountain to save weight at altitude. Families were told the day before that the lift would carry people only. Aquaterra committed at 11:02 to clear all gear and sent a ground team back for it.
Recommendation seven asks operators to plan helicopter evacuation before a trip: pre-identified landing zones, weight limits, sortie planning and a people-before-bags rule.
Porters and staff on the same manifest
The arrival list at Harsil matched the sortie plan, so each landing took minutes. The last lift carried trip leader Jetandra Rana and SDRF rescuer Ravi Chauhan, who guided every helicopter into the zone.
Clients, guides, kitchen staff and porters travelled under the same priority. Recommendation ten asks that the practice be written into policy.
Where the published figures differ
The case study gives base camp at 4,888 metres in its route table and 4,931 metres in its executive summary. The cover note reads nearly 5,000 metres. Aquaterra's live trip page gives 4,980 metres.
The helicopter count carries a second spread. One line reads that five helicopters flew the Auden's Col shuttle. The agency table reads that up to four of the eight helicopters in the operation flew Auden's Col. The sortie log names five airframes: VT-RJF, VT-RJH, VT-GRC, VT-RGL and VT-ASD.
The trip leader appears as Jetandra Rana through the narrative and as Jitendra Singh in the sortie log.
What the twelve recommendations ask
Four of the twelve cover trip planning. Set escalation triggers before departure. Carry satellite communications with spare power. File day-wise itineraries and name lists. Agree which aircraft are snow-ready before the season, because the DGCA bear-claw skid requirement cost one machine about an hour on the day.
Two more concern the state side: a standing high-altitude rescue protocol between operators, the district, the SDRF and helicopter operators with a single point of contact, and a place for families inside the operation.
The case study records family updates at least every few hours from 23 September. Each one gave the current status, the next step and the time of the next update.
Aquaterra released the case study and a video timeline through the Adventure Travel Trade Association's member news channel. The operator ran the Auden's Col departure from 19 September to 3 October 2026 and has run it at the same point in the season since 2008.