"Quartered in snow, silent to remain, when the bugle calls, they shall rise and march again"- these are the words that are etched on a stone memorial at the Indian Army base camp in Siachen – the world’s highest and coldest active war zone

The Indian army has held the position strong, keeping the enemies away from claiming the glacier. Since temperatures usually dip well below −50 °C, fresh food is a rare luxury at Siachen. Fruits freeze to become as hard as cricket balls and potatoes can’t be dented even with hammers. Getting the food at an altitude of 21,000 feet is a task in itself. A video which features three soldiers demonstrates the same using a tetra pack of juice, eggs, potatoes, tomatoes, ginger, onion, a knife, and a hammer.


"This is real juice. This here...you have to boil it to drink. Even if you hit the juice with a hammer it is impossible to break. Now, look at this glacier eggs. It's a task to make it as it's so hard. As far as potatoes are concerned, you have to boil it in extremely hot water. Same goes for Tomatoes and ginger. It's important to eat Onions but it's impossible. Everything turns into ice. Therefore, working in glaciers is not easy as the temperature can do down as far as -40 to -70-degree Celsius", the Army officers can be heard saying in the video as they try to break the hard and solid vegetables using a hammer.