Backgammon Trekking

   August 2007    India

  

Ok so what is the proper definition of trekking actually? Let’s get a quick answer from Wikipedia:

trekking: walking in the countryside for pleasure or sport. Usually meaning for a longer period of time than hiking.

For pleasure and sport? Hell yeah. Almost. Checking out the backgammon sessions from Officer dUB, an old extreme backgammon standby, and his opponent Hempel, a fairly new extreme backgammon player, it comes to the viewer’s mind that there is more than pleasure and sport involved here. The guys did a truly extreme tour climbing up to lake Moriri close to the famous trekking destination Ladakh, in Northern India. It has to be seen who has enough power and oxygen left to battle it out at the upcoming spot.

Hempel wins!     Match time: July 2007    click image to enlarge!

Hempel and Officer dUb were really battling it out close to the lake. It was a tough match and to everybody's surprise Hempel managed to beat the rather experienced Officer.

What we hear is that there was some controversy over certain local backgammon rules and that both opponents started the game with mixed feelings. Maybe they even forgot the doubling cube down in the base camp. What we know is that the loser had to carry the backgammon board to the next spot.

Officer dUb wins!     Match time: July 2007    click image to enlarge!

This was an invitation for Officer dUb - really motivated after the bitter defeat vs Hemple he regained confidence quickly and left Fraggle without change in a straight shooter full attack 5 pointer. Nothing more to say than it was Fraggle who hat to carry the board back to the camp...

As you can see - the definition of trekking needs to be rewritten - at least from our perspective:

extreme trekking: walking in the countryside for extreme backgammon activities. Usually meaning for a longer period of time than a 5 point game.