Apex Indian Mountaineering Foundation Newsletter * Volume 3 * May 2016 Photo courtesy Matija Jost : Descent from the summit of Khumchu Ri. ! Photo courtesy Matija Jost :View towards southeast from Ri Pok Te summit. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Inside Apex Volume 3 ! Expedition Notes President Col. H. S. Chauhan Raru Mountains - Matija Jost & Anastasia Davidova ! IMF Expedition to White Needle - Tarun Saikia Vice Presidents Khimling Top - Bhanu Pratap Singh Wg. Cdr. Amit Chowdhury Ms. K. Saraswati ! ! Photo Feature Honorary Secretary Living with the Gaddies - Rijul Gill Wg. Cdr. !S. K. Kutty ! Honorary Treasurer At the IMF S. Bhattacharjee ! IMF News Governing Council Members Announcing the IMF Mountain Movie Festival 2016 Col. Ajit Dutt Manik Banerjee ! Sorab Darius N. Gandhi Special Features Brig. M. P. Yadav Wg. Cdr. T. Sridharan Cleaning up the Indian Himalaya S. S. Sandhu 2016 IFSC Bouldering World Cup in India Prem Singh Maj. K. S. Dhami ! Magan Bissa AVM A. K. Bhattacharyya In the Indian Himalaya Ms. Chaula Jagirdar News and events in the Indian Himalaya ! ! Ex-Officio Members Dr. K. P. Krishnan IAS Book Releases Ministry of Rural! Development Launch of recent books on the Indian Himalaya Secretary/Nominee, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports Expedition Notes Apex IMF Newsletter Volume 3 Raru Mountains (above 6000m) ! First Ascents above Tatleh Nala Zanskar Himalaya Kun Long Ri (6058m) and P5890 m on east side of Tetleh Glacier Slovenian alpinist Matija Jost gives an account of his and Anastasija Davidova's ascents of Khumchu Ri (6064m), Kun Long Ri (6058m) and Ri Pok Te (6210m) in the Raru valley, Zanskar region of J&K. All three were first ascents of the peaks and Matija talks about the many aspects of this challenge. Inspired by the 2009 Kyoto Zanskar expedition, southeast ridge and higher up snowy east we traveled to Raru Mountains in summer 2015. ridge alpine D+. The attractive peak on east The Raru valley is located in the Ladakh region side of the Tetleh valley seemed an of northern India. Raru village lies south of appropriate goal for us after we felt Padam (capital of Zanskar) and can be reached acclimatized enough. Left part of the west by car. South of the massif is Miyar Glacier. In face of the peak looked safe, rocky part of this rarely visited area we set our base camp in the north ridge above it was a riddle, and the most western valley of the massif in Tetleh continuation to the summit supposed to be Nala. We were second team in the valley after straightforward. the Imperial College Expedition in 2011. ! ! In changeable weather, it took us 4 days For acclimatization we climbed the virgin (from August 13 to 17) of climbing up our mountain (6064m) on west side of the valley. route and one more day for walking back to The shape of the summit looked like a bird’s our base camp. We believe we made the first beak, so we named the peak Khumchu Ri ascent of the peak and named it Kun Long Ri (Khumchu means beak in Ladakhi language and (6058 m). Length of the climb is 1500m, Ri means peak). We graded the climb on rocky height diference from beginning of climb to Ri Pok Te 6210m : From east to west, VI-, TD+ED-, 1200 m) the summit is 750m, grade is about TD+ (rock up to 5+ UIAA grade, ice up to 65o).. We thought overall We named our route “Happy Journey” as an answer to common question in India, when you communicate with locals. After Anastasija’s troubles with toothache and her return to base camp, we still had plenty of time to try another objective. The east face of Ri Pok Te (6210 m) attracted us, which was safe and suitable even though the pillar didn’t lead directly to true summit. Kun Long Ri 6058 m (TD+, 1500)m) Looking down the west face of Kun Long Ri Climbing was on very high quality rock up to and it means ‘the mountain that hides other the southwest ridge, then we traversed into mountains or the mountain from which you can west face to avoid difcult ridge section, regain see backside. southwest ridge and continued to the summit. ! We bivouacked twice, once on our way up and Mountains above Tetleh Nala and valley itself again during our descent. are great. Upper part of the valley is very rarely ! visited and therefore nature is pretty much We believe we made first ascent of the peak. We unspoiled and fragile. In the valley there is still think that overall grade of the climb is TD+/ED- enough nice mountaineering potential varying (rock climbing up to VI- UIAA grade). Length of from one day walk to unclimbed 6000 meter the route is 1200 m, height diference from peaks to very hard looking rock climbing beginning of climb to the summit is 1000 m. We objectives in faces up to 1000 m leading to named our route “From East to West”, the unclimbed 6000 meter peaks. We hope that beauty of climbing was 5 stars. future parties visiting area will respect high ! ethical standards and operate in small teams in We climbed entire route in rock climbing shoes simple alpine style. in perfect weather. Local people at Raru village ! know the mountain as Ri Pok Te. You can see - Matija Jost and Anastasia Davidova the summit of it from some part of the village ! White Needle (6600m) ! IMF Mixed Expedition Zanskar Himalaya Approach to Mt. White Needle (seen in the centre) Tarun Saikia relates his team’s expedition to White Needle (6600m) jointly organised by the IMF, in September-October, 2015. This arduous climb had last been climbed 26 years ago, in 1989. Seven climbers out of this 14 member team were able to summit. Mt. White Needle (6600 m) is situated in Zanskar Due to bad weather and heavy snowfall all the region of Jammu & Kashmir, adjacent to Mt. Nun members returned back to Gulmatang. On 24th (7135 m). It has remained unclimbed since 1989, September weather became favourable again being very arduous with many carnies and steep and three of our climbing members along with climb over ice. The 14 member expedition was 2 HAPs returned back to the base camp in the jointly organised by the IMF and Department of snow. Tourism and sponsored by Ministry of Youth Afairs and Sports, Govt. of India. Next day also the weather was quite favourable, so I along with 3 HAPs decided to After the flag-of at Srinagar on September 19, load ferry to Camp 1. We took 5 -6 hours to 2015, we reached Kargil, and thereafter reach Camp-I (17232ft). The rest of the Gulmatang by bus and pitched our tents near the members of Gulmatang also reached Base Suru River. Next day we trekked to Chasmis, Camp. The next two days we loaded ferries for crossing Shapath Nala, and halted there. Next Camp 1. After a rest day, we moved to Camp I. morning, after our breakfast we started the trek for Base Camp (14907ft). It took us around 6 On September 30, 2015, we started load ferry hours to reach base camp. Snow started falling for Camp-II. The way towards Camp-II was very and continued for two days. Almost 1-2 feet of difcult and steep with mixed ice and snow. snow had fallen at our Base Camp. After nine hours of steep climb (1500m) On the way to the summit of White Needle through rope/jumar, we reached Camp-II October 02, 2015. The entire route towards (19140 ft) and erected our tent on snow. There the top of Mt. White Needle was very was a rope fixed which was around 1400 arduous. It was covered with ice and snow. meters in its length on a 65-70 degree Ice We climbed up a snow ridge approximately Wall. From Camp II we could see Mt. Kun 800m (climb like needle) through jumar/ (7035m) the 2nd highest peak in Kashmir rope, leading towards top of Mt. White Himalaya and Mt. Pinnacle (6930m) from our Needle. Six of the team were able to summit. right and two unknown peaks. After depositing Suddenly the weather started deteriorating our load at Camp 2 we came back to Camp 1 and the visibility became poor. and took rest for a day. We returned to Camp-II, deciding not to Next day all the members moved to occupy climb Mt. Pinnacle (6930m) due to bad Camp-II, which was the Summit Camp of Mt. weather conditions and so moved down to White Needle. After a steep climb of ice wall, Camp-I. We reached base camp next day and we reached the snowfield of Camp-II. The thereafter back to Kargil and New Delhi. weather was good the next day and we started our journey towards the summit of Mt. White - Tarun Saikia Needle Peak (6600 m) at around 03:00 am on Khimling Top (6200m) ! First Ascent Kumaon Himalaya View of Khimling Top (6220m) Bhanu Pratap Singh, 2nd-in-command, Indo Tibetan Border Police, recounts his 17 member team’s first ascent of Mt. Khimling Top (6200m). Two climbers and two HAPs summited in this challenging expedition to this virgin peak. In October, 2015 the frontier level ITBP team (4874m) and decided to occupy the camp next conducted the most challenging and daunting day along with our load. The route was along expedition to Khimling Top (6200m), a virgin a dry nala with rugged terrain and stones. It peak till then. The peak is located in Darma was a steep and difcult ascent with all the valley ahead of Goh village (3340m) in the load.