ASIAN ALPINE E-NEWS
Issue No 88. May 2021

Taweche as seen from Dugla on the trail to Everest Base CampThe Himalayan News Issue 8, Photos by Sujoy Das, Page 2 ~ 221

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan NewsMay 2021

The Himalayan

A Newsletter of The Himalayan

MAY 2021 NO 8
THE CLIMB OF TAWECHE
Jim Wilson

CLIMATE CHANGE- A
THREAT TO CLIMBERS
Group Capt. S.S.Puri (Retd)

OBITUARY: BHANU
BANERJEENEW BOOK RELEASES

AFTER DUSK

Sujoy DasBOUQUETS & BRICKBATS

Rupamanjari Biswas

1

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

Dear Readers,

We welcome you to the eighth issue of The Himalayan News.
As we write this editorial, the second wave of Covid 19 is sweeping across India and Nepal and hastaken the entire health infrastructure by surprise. The daily news headlines are reporting no beds in
hospitals, people dying due to lack of oxygen, and heart breaking photographs of burning funeralpyres with bodies lined up and wailing relatives.
We pray that this second wave subsides soon and the vaccination programs can be ramped up
speedily.
On the mountaineering and trekking front, another season has been lost. Most companies havecancelled their spring treks and expeditions. The only exception seems to be 44 expeditions and 400
plus climbers at Everest Base Camp presently attempting Mount Everest this season. To make things
more difficult for the teams, there have been a number of covid cases both at Everest and Dhaulagiri
Base Camp and the climbers have been evacuated to a Kathmandu hospital. We hope that the restof the season can be completed without any further mishaps.
In this our eighth issue, Jim Wilson, who was part of Ed Hillary’s team and worked with him formany years, pens an essay on the first Himalayan mountain he attempted - the shapely Taweche(also known as Taboche) one of the so called ‘lesser peaks’ of the Khumbu valley.
Group Captain S.S. Puri (Retd) writes of the challenges of climate change for mountaineers - anextremely relevant subject today. Many of you must be aware of the forest fires in Uttarakhand and
Nepal which ravaged the environment for more than a month in April until much needed rain
showers doused them out.
Bhanu Banerjee was one of the stalwarts of The Himalayan and his untimely demise was a great
shock for most of us.
Most of us visiting the Himalaya focus our attention on sunrises and sunsets over the world’s highest
peaks forgetting that there is another world after dusk. A photo essay from different parts of theHimalaya at night has been included.
Despite the pandemic, a number of new books have been released in the last two years. We bringyou some of these books which make great reading and some will soon become Himalayan classics.
A century has elapsed after the first group of adventure loving climbers set their eyes on Everest. It
is now a playground for the seekers of fame and fortune. May Chomolungma keep showering her
blessings and may conscience prevail upon mankind.

Sujoy Das
Rupamanjari Biswas
Editors
2

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

TAWECHE, MY FIRST HIMALAYAN MOUNTAIN
Jim Wilson

Taweche as seen from Dugla on the trail to Everest Base CampA group of spectacular peaks stand like stark
sentinels above the twin villages of Khumjung
and Khunde, the initial site, and still the heart,of Ed’s Hillary’s aid programmes. Taweche,
Ama Dablam, Kangtega and Thamserku range
in height from above 21,000 ft. to above
22,000 feet (roughly 6,500 to 6,800 metres).
During Ed’s 1960/61 high altitude and ‘yetihunting’ expedition four of the members
made the first ascent of Ama Dablam. This
ascent planted in Ed’s mind, always fertile
ground for growing new adventures, a desirethat his parties make first ascents of all fourpeaks. When planning his 1963 Schoolhouse
Expedition he included attempts on two of
the remaining three, Taweche and Kangtega.
In April, 1963, while the rock walls of the
Pangboche school were being constructed by
local craftsmen, Ed let some of us young ones

loose on Taweche, which towered above thevillage. Our mountain sirdar was Ang Temba, abrilliant mountaineer with eleven years ofexperience on peaks such as Kanchenjunga,
Everest, Makalu and Ama Dablam. He led ateam of five of the young expedition sherpas,
and had to cope with a fluctuating number ofyoung expedition ‘sahibs’. When we went toassess as a possible base camp site a frozen
lake at about 17000 feet, Ed led us up at apace I for one found exhausting, ironical giventhat he and Desmond Doig had been
complaining of old age (Ed was then about43), and had jokingly formed the GOG club
(Grow Old Gracefully)!
Above the lake, for 3,000 feet, rose anencircling ring of cliffs guarding access to asnow plateau, with the heavily corniced
summit another 1,000 feet above. Somehow

3

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

we had to find a route up which we could
carry loads to establish a high camp on theplateau. (I say ‘we could carry loads’ but ofcourse I really mean ‘Sherpas could carryloads’, not us weakling ‘sahibs’!).

Location of Taweche in the Khumbu

Dave Dornan and I were the first of the young‘sahib’ mountaineers on the mountain.
Though Dave had been high in Alaska, wewere both Himalayan novices in the company
of veteran Ang Temba. But in those distantand benighted days we still adhered to themyth that we ‘sahibs’ knew more about
mountaineering than did Sherpas. So we were
nominally ‘in charge’. No wonder excitementvied with apprehension in me. My first
Himalayan peak, a dream come true; but what
if altitude and responsibility for laden Sherpas
tested me and found me wanting?
A formidable ridge leading to the plateau, aseries of difficult rock towers leading to a1500 foot buttress, proved not to be a packing
route. So we established a base camp at thelake and turned our attention reluctantly tothe messy face above it, a chaos of steep rockand loose gullies. A member of Ed’s 1961/62
expedition had reached – by ‘easy scrambling’- a small icefield on this face, and thought
there was a possible route from there to thecrest of the ridge, above the buttress. To ourdelight Pemba Tarke and I found his ‘easy
scrambling’ route to this icefield, reaching it intime to prospect the route beyond. For awhile we picked our way up that true delightof the climber, rock steep enough to titillate

the nerves yet firm and easy enough to bewell within our safety limit. Pemba Tarke wassuperb: neat and controlled, but with a
volcano of explosive energy bubbling beneaththe surface. Alas, all too soon the rib became
deep loose snow broken by unstable rockbands. And a snowstorm began wrapping cold
tentacles around us. Frustrated, we cautiously
crept back down, wet snow and wearinessadding to danger.
It was becoming clear that, though there wasprobably a climbable route to the crest of theridge, it would need to have ropes fixed on it
to make it a safe packing route. We had withus 500ft coils of manila rope for this purpose.
Manila rope, still in use in New Zealand when I
started mountaineering, is one of the devil’s
most sadistic inventions. Even dry it displays
unseemly desire to tangle. It has prodigious
capacity for absorbing moisture, doubling its
weight and boosting its tangling tendency.
And then the wet tangle freezes!! Cold fingers
fumble and frustrated fists beat at the frozen
lump, to no avail.

Edmund Hillary gazes at Taweche (left) and the tipof Everest

4

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

Dave and I set off next morning carrying, inturn, one 500-foot coil of manila. We
intended to experiment with rope fixing andalso complete the route to the ridge, so
excessive was our naive optimism. The coilbecame a dangerous out-pulling hump as westarted up the rock rib above the icefield so
we dumped the coil 250 feet up and climbed
another 250 feet leading out the rope behind.
We fastened the end securely to a well-driven
piton and felt relief at having our escape off
the mountain assured. We continued up theenjoyable pitches of the previous day, but
flurries of snow enveloped us as we reachedour highest point. Ascending one more rockband was all the progress made that day. We
rappelled down to the waiting fixed rope, slid
down it to the icefield, and stomped back tocamp groaning about the day’s meagre gains.

Everest and Lhotse from the Taweche Base Camp

The next day, with Ang Temba and Pemba
Tarke, we fared little better. In two stormracked days we had gained less than 1,000
feet on a still doubtful route. Fortunately Mike

Gill and Murray Ellis, both formidable
climbers, had moved up to Base Camp while
we were on the face. They both said: “it’stime to put a camp on the icefield”. In his
book ‘Mountain Midsummer’ (one of myfavourite mountain books) Mike Gill gives aquirky account of the debate that followed:“Dave’s principles were against this. He was athoughtful, scholarly, person, sparing ofwords ..... Through him we built up a pictureof American climbers, or some of them, as asmall, ascetic community whose code of
ethics was better defined than ours. Littering
the mountain-side with camps and fixed ropes
troubled Dave. It was the difference between
the man who goes fishing with a fly-rod andthe one who uses a charge of gelignite.
Besides, our site for Camp 1 was quite clearlyan avalanche fan. Dave was outvoted
however. Our more primitive New Zealandapproach was to reach the summit by any
method offering and had it been feasible wewould have drilled a hole up the centre.”
Under the partial shelter of an outcrop ofrock, at about 18,000 feet, we dug a level
platform for three small tents. Next day, withthe advantage of the higher start, we did
finally reach the ridge. It was painstaking
work. At one point Mike had to force a route
up a gully of deep unstable snow overuncertain rock. The snow was of thatconsistency which flows round and envelopes
the foot, refusing to consolidate into someform of step. Mike had to ladle oceans ofsnow out of the way to form a semblance of apath, watching all the while as the dislodged
snow slid down to disappear over a sudden
drop. He was superb; untiring with his axe andso neat in his movements he seemed scarcely
to touch the shaky track he was constructing.
Eventually he found a narrow wedge of rockand sat astride it to belay me up. As I edged
round underneath his rock he mournfully
informed me it had changed from wedge torazor edge and was causing pain to afundamental part of his anatomy. “Don’t letme hurry you”, he said, “but it’s down to thebone already.” I was too tired to spare more

5The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

than a sympathetic grunt. But after moreanxious and exhausting effort we finallyreached the ridge. Dave and Murray had been
following us up adjusting and finally securing
the assorted lengths of rope with which Mikeand I were festooning the mountain. They
joined us on the ridge.

Pemba Tarke, a brilliant mountaineer

Visibility was nil, hands and feet were cruellumps of cold. We tried by will power towrench a cleft in the drifting curtain of snow.
We knew we were well above the buttress
Dave and I had dallied with seemingly not solong ago, but could see nothing above us but
a messy crest of rock and snow disappearing
into mist. But at least the route below, though
spectacular for load carrying, had been madesafe by the fixed ropes, as we found to ourdelight when we were able to whizz down to
the icefield camp in an hour. There, however,
Ang Temba and Pemba Tarke, who had
stayed in camp, reproachfully handed us alarge rock and pointed to a hole in the roof ofone of the tents. Fortunately neither of themhad been injured, but thereafter this camp
was not favourably regarded by Sherpa
members of the party.
“######”. The voice competing unsuccessfully
with the static on the radio next morning wasundoubtedly Ed’s, but the content of his
message was not easy to decipher. We werecrouched round the radio in Mike’s andMurray’s tent, ready to go and investigate theridge. The motive for the next move wasdisputed, but Mike and I claim we believed Ed
to have said something about continuing on

the mountain. Mike grabbed the microphoneand said: “Understand you to say go ahead
with assault. Please confirm!” No static in theworld could hide Ed’s answer; indeed, it may
well have bypassed the radio and boomed inon natural resonance alone. “Negative,
negative! Message is return to Pangboche
immediately!”This was the only stern order I ever heard
from Ed – normally his method was discussion
and consensus. So, of course, but grumblingly,
we obeyed. At Pangboche we found we wereindeed needed badly to get building theschool back on schedule. During the following
week the foul weather got even fouler, andwe could have done nothing on the mountain,
so we regretted our grumble. With the schoolback on track, Ed came with us when weheaded back up. We were keen to show him
the route, but glimpses through rare breaks inthe cloud were all we were allowed, and theslim lines of the fixed ropes were difficult todistinguish.

Climbers descending from the highest point
reachedAng Temba, Mike, Dave and I moved up next
day and dug out the tents, which werecollapsed and torn under a mass of new snow.
The following morning Dave and Mike rapidly

6

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

ascended the ropes and reached the ridge
crest by noon. For the first day on record nosnow fell and they moved up the ridge toreach, then with difficulty ascend, the first of
the two rock steps we had seen from
Pangboche. Mike and I reached this first step
the following day, and I had difficulty
ascending it even with the aid of the rope
they had fixed. By 1pm we were at the second
tower, and found it as difficult as the first andabout three times higher. Mike tied himself
firmly to a rock and announced with equal
firmness that the ‘honour’ of leading it wasmine. When finally I reached the top a frozen
Mike informed me the lead had taken one anda half hours.
Snow started again as I hauled up andfastened a wire ladder. To our dismay wewere still not at the plateau. We were clinging
to the foot of a steep snow slope which rosesome 150 feet to a sharp peaklet. A shortcorniced ridge then wavered left to connect,
not even then with the plateau proper, but atleast with a possible campsite on a small lip
just below the plateau. Mike cut andploughed a tired trail up the slope till we
could assure ourselves about the campsite.
Cold fingers fumbled with rope and wire as
we descended to, and fixed a second wire
ladder on, the first step. Then gravity dragged
us down the ropes and deposited us in a heap
at Camp 1.
A storm raged all next day, but the following
day we set out in improving weather tocomplete the route and establish the assault
camp. The load-carrying Sherpas went up the
steep slopes magnificently, but when wereached the first of the rock steps, with its
wire-rope ladder, we foolishly decided todispense with their aid. Forty pound loads
increase alarmingly when taken from Sherpa
backs and hauled by rope up steep rock, andmore again when transferred to our backs.
And the corniced ridge we still had to cross toreach the campsite brought us close to theend of our tether. But reach the site we did,and stamped out a platform to take two small
red tents.

High Camp on a ledge
The spectacular route up had gained us aspectacular campsite. A narrow ledge of semihorizontal snow squatted beneath the plateau
lip, and ended a few yards beyond the tents in
an ice cliff brooding over a 3,000 foot face.
The mist cleared, revealing the peaks nearby –Sagarmartha,tha, Lhotse, Nuptse, Ama Dablam,
Kangtega – and leaving us with an awed senseof height and loneliness. Slowly the sundipped into a red bath of cloud, as indifferent
to our wonder as to our weariness. The stark
world of black and white blazed into brilliant
colour, only to die away into the cruelmonotone of a Himalayan night. Human dots
in an immensity of blackness, we turned
uneasily away, and between the confining
walls of the tents acted out once again
humanity’s greatest self-deception – thecreation of a world small enough for us tocomprehend.
Next day, while I grovelled in a tent withaltitude nausea, Mike and Dave finallyreached the plateau, quite a sizeable glacier
shelf draining the south face of the summit
cone. They plugged across it in deep powder
snow. Similar depth on the face above mightspell defeat. They crossed the schrund at thefoot of the face over a bridge of soft snow,
and at first had to scrape off a deep layer of
powder snow to reach something firm enoughto cut steps in. As the slope steepened,however, the depth of snow decreased, andwhen they turned to descend they had a lineof steps slanting some 200 feet up the face.

7

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

Mike and Dave set off first next morning. Ang
Temba and I delayed our start with a view tocatching up with them near the top of theface, the alternative being long hours of
waiting and deluges of ice and snow as they
completed the staircase to the foot of an ice
bulge which formed the shoulder of the ridge
above. They had to shovel off up to a foot of
unstable snow before chipping steps in thevarying surface below. But a huge blessing
was that good shaft belays were lacking only
once. It took them from 7am to 1pm toascend about 800 feet. But at length we were
all crouched together on a tiny platform of ice
below the bulge. Ice pitons were Mike’s belay
as Dave crept round a corner into a slight gully
which breached the overhang of the bulge. He
was beyond the ‘safety net’ of the plateau
now, and swayed on tiny nicks above a dizzy
4,000-foot plunge of snow and rock. The gully
ended under a cornice, but with some delicate
balancing and a final groaning heave Dave at
length pulled himself through it and onto thesummit ridge of Taweche.

“How does it look?” Mike asked. There was alongish pause before Dave answered. We held
our breath, for till now we had had only
distant views of what the final short stretch ofridge to the summit was like. “Looks O.K. forthe first part”, Dave finally answered in his
quiet voice. “It’s kind of difficult after that.”

The corniced final summit ridge of Taweche

We scrambled up to join Dave – and stoodappalled. Taweche had played his cards well.
No one could accuse him of trying to deceive
us with gentle lower slopes, but we imagined
his strongest trumps had been played when
he threw at us first the face, then the rocksteps, then the ultimate slopes we had justascended. We now saw he had kept his best
(or worst, depending on whose side you wereon) till last. We were standing on the broad,almost flat, top of the ice bulge. Its gentle
snow continued for perhaps 20 yards more.

Prayer flags at the highest point reachedBeyond that all hell had been let loose. A
tenuous ridge twisted up to the summit, 50
yards or so from us horizontally and perhaps
30 feet above us. It was festooned with softsnow cornices, seemingly undercut on both

8

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

sides, and with light shining through 20 feetbelow the crest. Mike and I were sure there
were only one-way tickets along that crest,
but we had to make a gesture if but for form.
Fearfully we crept a few yards out along theridge. On one side the snarling cornices
overhung the plateau; on the other steep soft
snow itching to avalanche, then nothing but
remote yak pastures 6000 feet below. Davewas keen to prod a last defiant axe at themountain, but Mike and I, able to offer only afarcical token of a belay from our knee-deep
stance in steep snow, rather shortly declined
to remain attached to the rope if he went
further. And Ang Temba? “Taweche no goodsahib.”
Mike wrote: “The Sherpas say that on themountain dwells the god Taweche. I could
almost believe it: that some hoary, illtempered spirit had been retreating beforeus, summoning up those snow-storms on theface, hurling rocks and avalanches on Camp 1,
softening the snow. And now, backed into hislast stronghold, he was tempting us to
destruction along that last tottering crest to
the summit.”
We had with us two prayer flags from when
we had tried to placate Taweche during aritual at Pangboche Gompa. Ang Temba
performed a simple ceremony and placed theflags at the point where the ridge narrowed.
We slouched back to the comparative safetyof the ice bulge. To pretend we were notdisappointed would be idle, but Mike hit ananswering chord when he quietly said: “Youknow, I think in some ways it is better not tohave violated so beautiful a summit.”

9

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

CLIMATE CHANGE: A THREAT TO CLIMBERS
Group Capt. S.S.Puri (Retd)

Green Lakes on the Zemu Glacier below the north-east spur of Kangchenjunga – the lake had dried up by 2014

[This is an extract of a longer article]
Introduction
The impact of climate change has become ahot topic for individuals, organisations andGovernments all over the world with its widesocio, economic and health ramifications.
Climate change has become our generation’s
tragedy, an inheritance, which we would passon to the coming generation.
Mountains and climate change
Mountains have a profound influence on not
only the local climate and immediate vicinity
but sometimes in areas thousands of miles
away.
The jutting of mountains causes the winds tolift-up, which makes air to cool andprecipitate as the thin air absorbs less heat. If

it were not for mountains interfering with thegreat flow of wind currents around the earth,the overall climate would be far lesscomplicated.
Climate change is widely acknowledged tohaving a profound effect on the biosphere,with many and diverse impacts on global
resources. Mountain ecosystems in the
Himalaya, in particular, are highly sensitive toclimate change.
The same eco-system provides up to 85% of
the water humans depend on, as well as hostof other eco-system services, such as snowbased recreation, timber, unique flora andfauna, to name a few.
Mountains, for the climbers are the play-fields
and class rooms for practical training. Glaciers
are considered among the most sensitive of
climate change. Their size is determined by a

10

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

mass balance between snow input and melt
output. As temperature increases, glaciers
retreat.

The retreating Khumbu Glacier below Everest

Challenges of climate change on mountainclimbing
Mountains are our play-fields and bread andbutter of the communities living in themountainous regions like the Sherpas (nicknamed as ‘Ice Doctors’).
With rapid climate change, we as climbers
would be facing the following additional
challenges besides the health related changes
while venturing in the high altitudes:
Glacial retreat: the extraordinary
disappearance of glacial mass in themountains not only changes the view, it also
makes mountain travel more complicated;
Moraine collapse: as glaciers flow, they crack
under pressure, opening up crevasses,
difficult to cross;Bergschrund: heat wave opens these gaps,
blocking access to popular routes. With
crampons, it is difficult to climb on aluminium
ladders put for crossing these gaps (Khumbu
Gl to C2);
Seracs (Ice cliffs): collapse without warning
due to heat;Ice: heat waves make routes icier and thus
difficult to climb as compared to compact ice(Neve), on which grips can be made withcrampons and ice axe;
Rock-fall: permafrost and ice-fields play a
critical role in slope capability. Due to heat ice
melts, dislodging firm rocks, putting climbers
below to risk;

Collapsing mountains: sometimes there are
massive rock slides due to atmosphericwaves;
Flash flooding/cloud burst: melting snow andice create water in significant quantity,
making harder to cross (Shafat nallah on Mt.
Nun route);
Mountains are telling us what’s happening
now, before our own eyes, under thecrampons of our own feet. The ice is giving us
an early warning of things to come.
Role of mountaineers and activism
Climbers care deeply about the issue ofclimate change and are concerned about its
impact on the climbing landscape,communities and outdoor recreation
economy. They believe climate change is oneof the greatest threats to their sports, theirlives and the earth.
Climbing in the mountains makes us front-line
observers. With receding glaciers, dying
forests and ice climbs, that don’t matter tomany, it is our duty to speak up and make adifference. Mountains are our directconnection to nature. By combining thehistorical context and our keen observational
skills, we as climbers, have the ground work
for scientific understanding. As a
mountaineering community, we are, or weshould be, fully aware of the environment welive and play in.
Climbers can be the ambassadors from themountains .We can communicate aboutclimate change and have significant impact on
the public’s perception. Climbing is more in
the public eye than ever before andfavourably so. Mountaineering community isa global community, defined not by borders
but by shared passion for great escapes. Now
more than ever we must stand together.
Because climate change is threatening theplaces we love and unite us, our voices will
trigger an avalanche of change. Let’s stand up
to our planet for future generations.
As more mountaineers and travellers are
becoming aware of the environmental impact
they generate, they are looking towards givingback to the local community and the11The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

environment where they travel. Let’s pledge
to adopt few simple sustainable choices forlimiting environmental damage by supportingand engaging local communities andprotecting their culture. What’s happening to
Mt Everest is also happening to the othermountain areas which are not as frequently
visited. Mt Everest is more visible and known
because there are lot of people there.
Climate change has begun to spin out ofcontrol. It will become increasingly difficult topull out of this spiral, making it increasingly
urgent that climbing fraternity begin serious
efforts soon. Here the mountain activists canplay an important role. Activism depends
largely on community organising –somethingthat’s a challenge in the time of corona virus
and while climbing can be seen as a selfish
pursuit, focused on individual goals andprogression, climate change activism give us
climbers an opportunity to step out of ourbubble and use some of that motivation anddiscipline ,to work for the common good. In
fact, disasters and climate change can bringcommunities together. Some of the climbers
are playing a good role in this direction andhave taken up this responsibility as activists.
Nature is a part of our heritage and as
climbers; we have to conserve it for future
generations.

Josh Worley climbing a steep ridge

between 3000 m and 6800 m, to raise $1
million to help fight climate change. Similarly
famous climber Conrad Anker, of 1962
American West to East Everest Expedition, in2012 launched the Everest Education
Expedition. St Piere has launched Lhotse
Scientific Expedition, to study climate changeon this mountain. The expedition would do research at the glacier and collect environment
data and samples. And Greta Thunberg, 16
year old Swedish school girl has been leading
a crusade against climate change and has
rightly pronounced-“because our leadersbehave like children, we have to take over
responsibility they should have taken a longtime ago and we must understand what theolder generation has put on us”.
And the sherpas not to be left behind, havelaunched ‘The Climbing For Justice Everest
Expedition’, to draw attention to thedisastrous impacts that climate change ishaving on our precious eco-systems, as well ason the local communities .The expedition also
featured Sudarshan Gautam, a Nepal born
Canadian resident, who has become the first
person with no arms or prosthetic limbs toclimb Everest (message should be loud andclear to Climbathons on the Mule’s track, now
declared as a Trekking Peak). And Wild Gadd,
who climbed frozen Niagara fall in 2015,
offers his alpine passion and skill to the research community, by taking scientists toplaces they could not reach on their own, tostudy the impact of climate change on thehigh altitudes.
So make a noise about low-carbon changes
that we are pioneering. Involve other climbers
and let our voice be heard. Anyone who isdenying global warming is not a mountaineer,
because we can see it firsthand.

Josh Worley for his 30th birthday, which hecalls ‘vertical year’, wishes to climb 30 peaks

12

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

AFTER DUSK –A PHOTO ESSAY
Sujoy Das“At Ghorepani, I discovered that the winter night is one of the most wondrous times in the Himalaya.
I set up my camera on a tripod outside my lodge and waited for the stars. The last light of the setting
sun faded from the sky and then the shadows of the night took over. To the east, I spotted Orion
while high up overhead was the Great Bear. In this star studded arena, the Milky Way could beclearly seen.” From www.sujoyrdas.blogspot.com

Dhaulagiri, Tukuche and the Milky Way from Ghorepani

The Namaste lodge at Tolka with Annapurna South and Hiunchuli before dawn

13

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

The Sherpa capital Namche Bazar with Thamserku

A lodge at Khumjung with Kwangde in the background

14

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

The Stok Kangri range and Leh town

Tea tent at Nimaling below the Kongmaru La, Ladakh

15

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

The Kangchenjunga range from Rinchinpong, Sikkim on a full moon nightCamp at Jakthang on the Green Lakes trek, Sikkim

16

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

OBITUARY: BHANU BANERJEE
Rupamanajari Biswas.
BHANU BANERJEE, A BLYTHE SPIRIT
Born on 27th April, 1937, Bhanu Banerjee was an adventurer at heart from the word go. He moved homeseveral times as a youngster which would have instilled a natural wanderer spirit in him. Having completed his
education in Kalimpong, he was deputed as a local correspondent assisting Desmond Doig, the then Editor of
the Statesman in Calcutta.
Though he had travelled widely in Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and parts of Tibet, his seminal venture was the 196061 explorations undertaken by Edmund Hillary where he was the only Indian member of Hillary’s Yeti Hunting
Team. Besides being involved in setting up the Silver Hut and building the Lukla Airport, he joined the
expedition for climbing Mt. Makalu (8485 m) without using oxygen equipment. That was a last minute decision
taken by Hillary who deputed him as a general aide largely to supervise the business of communication. He
was an excellent interpreter and had a pleasant and cooperative personality which endeared him to Ed Hillary.
In 1962, as Deputy Leader of the Nilgiri Parbat (6474 m) expedition in the Garhwal Himalaya, of which Amulya
Sen was the Leader, Bhanu Banerjee was one of the two successful summiteers. He lost two toes to frostbite in
the bargain! The expedition was organized by the Himalayan Association, Calcutta and sponsored by The
Statesman, Calcutta.
Still limping with pain, he once again joined Hillary in his Schoolhouse on the Mountains Expedition in 1963. In
1964 he was invited to two Pre-Everest Expeditions, one led by Commander M.S. Kohli (to Mt. Trisuli and Mt.
Nanda Devi East in the Garhwal Himalaya) and the other led by Col. Jaiswal (to Mt. Kokthang in Sikkim).
All this without any formal training in mountain climbing. Only a born mountaineer can learn the tricks on thego, as Bhanu Banerjee did. His informal instructors were Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary!
'After taking part in seven expeditions and losing two toes in frostbite, my climbing days were over’; hereminisced in one of his writings. He eventually joined M/s Williamson Magor& Co. – a tea giant with many

17

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

gardens in Assam, Darjeeling, Dooars and Africa and went on to lead and manage large tea plantations
employing labour forces of several hundred people.
During his more than four decade tenure as Senior Manager in several tea estates, he held the honorary postsof Chairman at Kalchini Sub district and Dooars Branch of the Indian Tea Association. He was Honorary Panel
Inspector of the Tea Board.
His areas of interest included leadership, crisis management, mental and physical endurance, education,
consultation and public speaking. He spent his last years in the campus of Kharagpur IIT as a member of theAdvisory Committee in its Tea Processing Unit of Agriculture Engineering. However, given a chance, he would
rather go climb a mountain. Such was his enduring wish.

Bhanu Banerjee greets Peter Hillary during the Ed Hillary Centenary Celebrations at Kolkata November 2019
An excellent story-teller, he had regaled audiences at programmes organized by' The Himalayan’ several times,
talking about his interactions with Edmund Hillary and his explorations and researches. The last time he spoke
was on the Birth Centenary Celebration of Ed Hillary, on 20th July, 2019. Bhanu Banerjee’s recollections oftimes spent with Sir Edmund Hillary in the 1960s, was a treat. The almost faded photographs that he showedpresented a piece of storytelling that is anything but faded. The famous Silver Hut, searching for the Yeti andresearching effects of high altitude on the human body, were as awe -inspiring as his elocution.
Never in the spotlight, he, nonetheless, made a deep impact on people he interacted with. He passed away on
the 4th of August, 2020 leaving a void in Bengal's mountaineering fraternity difficult to fill.

18

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

NEW BOOK RELEASESThe last fifteen months since the start of the pandemic has seen the release of a number of excellent
books on the Himalaya and mountaineering.
WILD HIMALAYA by Stephen Alter“Stephen Alter’s exhaustive biography of the Himalayas is an exceptional tribute to the world’s
mightiest mountains… I would (if I could!) make this book mandatory reading for anyone planning tovisit the Himalaya.” Ranjit Lal, The Indian Express
THE LAST GREAT MOUNTAIN by Mick Conefrey“Drawing on interviews, diaries and unpublished accounts, Mick Conefrey begins The Last Great
Mountain: The First Ascent of Kanchenjunga in 1905 with the first, disastrous attempt on themountain by a team led by Aleister Crowley, explores the three dramatic German expeditions of thelate 1920s and brings it all to a climax 50 years later with the first ascent by Joe Brown and George
Band”. – Rock and Ice
HIMALAYA: A HUMAN HISTORY by Ed Douglas“In “Himalaya: A Human History,” the journalist Ed Douglas untangles the history of the mountains
starting from when they were formed, about 50 million years ago, to the Everest climbing craze
today. His book is the fruit of an enormous amount of research that focuses on the conquest of themountains and the interconnected kingdoms and states that vied for control.” – The New York Times
WINTER 8000 by Bernadette Mcdonald“In Winter 8000, Bernadette McDonald demonstrates once more her essential contribution tomountaineering history. With vividness and keen insight, she evokes a world that few experience
firsthand: the landscapes of black ice, thin air, and searing cold--as well as the haunting inner realms

19

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

of people drawn to the isolation of the highest peaks and the darkest months.” -- Katie Ives, Editor in
Chief ― Alpinist
THE WORLD BENEATH THEIR FEET by Scott Ellsworth"In his lively new book, The World Beneath Their Feet, Scott Ellsworth profiles the single-minded
climbers who scaled the Himalayas' tallest peaks in the 1930s...a gripping history."―The Economist
THE MOTH AND THE MOUNTAIN by Ed Caesar“An outstanding book . . . The Moth and the Mountain returns readers to a romantic era when
Everest was terra nova rather than an experience to be bought . . . The author, a contributing writerfor the New Yorker, is a talented storyteller with a flair for detail. . . . Wilson’s story is an entry less inthe annals of mountaineering than in the Book of Life. That such an extraordinary person evenexisted is cause for celebration.” —The Wall Street Journal
THE THIRD POLE by Mark Synnott“Almost seventy years after my father Tenzing Norgay Sherpa climbed the summit of Chomolungma
with the British 1953 Expedition, Western narratives about Mount Everest continue to be haunted
by the question whether it was Mallory and Irvine who had been the first to stand on the summit.
Mark Synnott’s The Third Pole pursues this mystery and brings us closer to closing this chapter ofmountaineering history.” —Norbu Tenzing Norgay

20

The Himalayan NewsThe Himalayan

May 2021

BOUQUETS AND BRICKBATS
Surjit Puri: 1. Pl oblige by including me in your mailing list. Though being a Life Member of
the IMF, for over three decades, the e copy of the mag is fwd to me.
2. In the current issue, the articles and the excellent pix of the Bakarwals of J&K are
fascinating. My first interaction with them was in the early sixties, when my father wasposted there and later in 1974 during the IAF trek, circumventing the whole of Kashmir
Valley. Later as Principal JIM from 1997 to 2004, meeting these hardy, hospitable and God
fearing nomads, was a daily affair and they used to call me 'watni' as I had similar
appearance and we had common language.
3. Hats off, in bringing the mag even during this difficult time.
Waiting for the virus to elope from here as the mountains beckon us in this long, 'housearrest'.

Jayashree Saha: Thank you for sharing these! Both the TH Newsletter and the TH Annual
report are spectacularly produced. The newsletter is classy, eclectic, informative and verycolorful! Joy to read! Beautifully edited and the photographs are amazing!!
The Annual report is so artistically put together. The reports on the individual events andthe gorgeous layout, WOW! So well documented!!
You all have been working hard!! Terrific outcome.
Bill Aitken: Just read in Tom Nakamura's Alpine E-letter 72 the Himalayan News 7.Three
superb informative and eminently readable articles. Please thank Sujoy for me. Apologies I
have just found The Himalayan News 7 in Trash. Three sterling articles . Congratulations.
Brig. K.Kumar: Thank you very much for sharing the Himalayan News letter (7th Edition).
The photographs are breathtaking to say the least and detailed information of the writeup
will surely be valuable for the mountain lovers !
My compliments to you for maintaining the very high standards of your publication.

The Himalayan News is published for non-commercial use only. All images in thisissue are copyright of their respective owners.
To join our mailing list please send an email tothehimalayan2017@gmail.com
and mention “SUBSCRIBE” in the subject line
Do follow us on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/thehimalayan2017/21