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Mountaineering, 'Tiger Karakoram', Himachal Pradesh, India, Oct 2010, ID 1029

Oxford University OTC, University of London OTC & 72 Engr Regt

In early October, eleven of us set off for the Indian Himalayas, with the aim of climbing several previously unclimbed and unnamed mountains around 6000m in height. The team was made up of a broad spread of ranks and units, both TA and regular.

After arrival in Delhi, we picked up our Liaison Officer from the Indian Mountaineering Federation and began the three day drive north. We didn’t know it at this point, but one of the most terrifying aspects of the trip for many was the road travel. Although travelling into the Himalayas through the plains of India, up into the foothills and eventually along the sides of precipitous valleys was unlikely to get boring, the bold, if not reckless overtaking by our drivers served to add in that extra bit of excitement.

It took around two weeks to reach base camp, having attempted to walk in from one side and then being forced to backtrack and drive for a day to walk in from the other side. The road-head was near a town called Darcha, which is close to the border of the Indian states of Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh. It was around three days walk in to base camp. We were split into three teams. At any one time, there would always be one team in base camp ready to organize a rescue for one of the other teams if required. WO1 Evans’s team were the unlucky ones, and would wait in camp until one of the other two teams returned. The day after we reached base camp, Captain Heppenstall, Captain Crosbie and I began to climb our team’s objective. This was an as yet unnamed 5930m peak which loomed over our base camp.

Our initial assessment was that this would be a relatively straightforward acclimatization peak. We had had (what we thought was) a good look at it during the move in to base camp, and the route appeared to be a simple walk up to a rounded ridge, which we would follow to the summit. We were shown to be very wrong. The first day of the climb was simple, but very hard work. We made steady progress up awkward scree, although, the high altitude and heavy loads meant that we could not cover ground anywhere nearly as quickly as we would in the Alps. After a few hours we reached a patch of snow that would provide enough to be boiled for eating and drinking, and camped there.

The second day began with more of the same. The ridge was much steeper than it had appeared from below. The rock was also very loose, meaning that we could neither climb on it nor place protection against a fall in it. We progressed by traversing on the snow just below the ridge. The snow was loose and unconsolidated, forcing every step to be taken with great care. It was an exhausting climb to a spectacular campsite on the ridge, just below a large snow face. It would have been very difficult to descend the way we had come, particularly the steep climb up to our campsite, and so we had committed ourselves to finding another route down the mountain.

On the third day we zig zagged up the snow face and followed the ridge around to reach the summit. The rock and snow conditions remained the same. Capt. Heppenstall found a route along the summit ridge and we eventually reached the top, tired but proud to have climbed an unclimbed Himalayan peak, and pleased that this was the first one of the expedition. We huddled together for photos on the small summit, then began our descent. This took us through a crevasse field and down loose scree before we got back to base camp. Capt Heppenstall decided that we would call the mountain Shere Khan, in keeping with the name and location of our expedition. Two of the team who had remained in base camp are engineers, and so had been hard at work with camp improvements, including seats in the mess tent, and most impressively, a shower.

Major Hing’s team got frustratingly close to the summit of their mountain, but had decided they were moving too slowly to descend by nightfall and so turned back. They had also found that the route was not as they had expected; the scale of the mountains in the area means that it is very hard to judge whether a section is climbable or not, and how long it will take, until you are actually on it. WO1 Evans’s team had been manning base camp, and they set off for their objective the day after my team got back. The next day it snowed heavily, and so they were also forced to return to base camp disappointed.

After sitting out a few days of bad weather two teams pushed up a huge glacier to make attempts at another two mountains. It was the turn of Maj. Hing’s team to stay in base camp this time. After camping on the glacier I set off with the other two in my team for our next objective. After walking only a short distance we decided that the mixture of crust and loose snow presented far too much of an avalanche risk, and so we decided to return to base camp. Myself and Capt. Crosbie had to drag Capt. Heppenstall out of a crevasse when a snow bridge collapsed under him.

We returned to base camp and made the difficult decision to descend; more snow was forecast and we were concerned that porters would not be able to reach the camp until the spring. This would have been too much time away from home for many of the team’s bosses and wives to tolerate.

It took three days to reach Manali, one of the bigger towns in the area and a mountaineering hub. We had two weeks of the expedition left, and so decided to climb Hannuman Tiba, a mountain easily accessible from Manali. Indian bureaucracy is never efficient, and so we had a few days of eating and drinking while our peak permits were rearranged. It took us a day to reach base camp once we had permission to climb. I was ill and so did not begin the climb. Others turned back due to altitude sickness and uncertainty about the route. Maj. Hing, Capt. Black and Ludar, our liaison officer, were successful though, despite the wildly inaccurate map they had been provided with.

Upon our return to Delhi we were fortunate enough to attend a Remembrance Sunday service at the Commonwealth cemetery there, as well as having five days to see the sights of the city. A few of us also made a day trip to the Taj Mahal. While the weather meant that we had not done as much climbing as we had hoped, we all had a fantastic experience, and as a team we were successful in getting members of the expedition to the top of an unclimbed mountain.

We very much appreciate the generous financial support and equipment provided by our sponsors, including the Ulysses Trust.

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Tiger Karakoram/Capt Heppenstall nears the summit. Tiger Karakoram/Capt Heppenstall, Capt Crosbie and OCdt Jorden on the summit. Tiger Karakoram/WO1 Evans’s team setting off. Tiger Karakoram/The steep approach to the summit of Hannuman Tiba Tiger Karakoram/Capt Thompson on steep ice