THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

Contents Volume 36, June 2017
Ninety Year of The Himalayan Club – Celebrations and
New Beginnings

4

The Himalayan Club Logo for the 90th Year Celebrations

4

An Overwhelming Annual Seminar

4

Launch of Commemorative Himalayan Journal Issue

7

Kekoo Naoroji Book Award

8

Jagdish Nanavati Award for Excellence in Mountaineering

8

Jagdish Nanavati Garud Medal

8

Annual Dinner

9

Banff Film Festival

10

Arun Samant Memorial Lecture

10

Visit to Dharamsala

10

A short Sojourn with the Himalayan Club17

New Beginnings with the Digital Age

18

Activities of the Delhi Section

18

Climbs and Explorations

19

Tibet

19

Exploration of Southern Tibet

19

International team climbs in Genyen massif, Sichuan - Mt. Hutsa & Peak 5912m 20
Small Australian-Chinese team explores new ground in Tibet

23

Tibet’s Jang Tsang Go climbed

27

South Face of Shisha Pangma in 13 hours

28

Sikkim and Nepal Himalaya

28

Kangchenjunga Skyline Project28

New Catalan climbs in Nepal

29

Three new routes in Nepal’s Rolwaling Valley

30

First alpine style ascent of Gimmigela East’s North Face

32

Everest - Hillary Step collapsed

33

Kumaun and Garhwal Himalaya

33

Direct route up Thalay Sagar North Face(6904m)

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Himachal Pradesh

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Shiv Shankar – 6050m – First ascent of the North Buttress35

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Kishtwar Himalaya

37

A new Route on South face of Brammah II

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News & Views

39

IMF News

39

Augmented Climbing Wall

40

Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey

41

Piolets d’Or Awards – 201741

Obituaries

42

Warwick Deacock42

Ueli Steck44

The man to remember

47

Erich Abram, the last Italian K2 mountaineer

48

Office bearers of the Himalayan Club for the year 201750

Narration for Cover Page
A 90 year Journey. The Himalayan Club was established in 1928. The
foundations of it were laid strongly by a number of people who weredevoted and passionate about the Himalaya. The president and theeditor of the Himalayan Club served as the two strong pillars of the Club.
In the issues of this year, we celebrating their contribution to make theClub strong and vibrant.
Presidents : W.R. Birdwood (1928-30), W.M. Hailey (1931-32), Kenneth
Wigram (1933), Sir Herbert Emerson (not on Cover Page1934-35), Harry
Haig (1936-38), Roger Wilson (1939-40), M.W. Yeatts (not on CoverPage1946-47)
Editors of HJ : Kenneth Mason (1928-40), Wilfred Noyce (1946), H.W.
Tobin (1947-57)

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THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

Ninety Year of The Himalayan Club –Celebrations and New Beginnings
The Himalayan Club Logo for the 90th Year Celebrations
The large community of the HC was used to crowd source a logo design.
The final design was selected through a voting process. The final design
by Mr. Rohit Anand was the winning entry. The design will be used for ourcommunication, website and other Merchandise to be made for the year.
The final design is

The Himalayan Club Logo for the year

An Overwhelming Annual Seminar
This year annual seminar was held on February 18 and 19, 2017 to an
overwhelming crowd. The well publicised announcement and a stellar line
up of speakers ensured a large gathering. The venue was accordingly
chosen to be the K.C. College Hall at Churchgate Mumbai, which canseat 900 people. We almost felt short of seats as the number of people
attending it was large.
Mr Tanil Kilachand welcoming the chief guest
Mrs Godrej. [Photo: Alka Kedia]

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The seminar was inaugurated
byMrs
Pheroza
Godrej.
Then Leo Houlding delivered
the Kaivan Mistry Memorial
Lecture – His highs and lowsin the life on the vertical. It wasmesmerising to hear his ordeals
and achievements all around theworld. He is a person to watch
out for the new adventures.

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Inauguration of the Annual Function.
L to R: Mr Kilachand, Mrs Godrej, Nandini Purandare,
Doug Scott, Malik. [Photo: Alka Kedia]
Leo performing theatrics
off the mountains!
[Photo: Alka Kedia]

A full houseenjoying the talks.
[Photo: Alka Kedia]

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Mrs Godrej addressing[Photo: Alka Kedia]

THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

Doug Scott receiving the Kekoo Naoroji Book
award from Mr Rishad Naoroji [Photo: Alka Kedia]

Subsequently
Doug
Scott
the
veteranclimber from Englandreceived the Kekoo
Naoroji Book award
for his Book Up andAbout – The Hard Road
to Everest and talked
about the Everest
Adventure by the SW
face route a daunting
effort of its time.

Next day saw evengreater crowds to see, meet and hear the Malik Twins about theiradventure – Explorer’s Grand Slam. It was followed by a film by Leo
Houlding on his climb of Everest in the foot steps of Irvin and Mallory.
The Seminar ended with Dough Scott talking about his adventure on the
Ogre – A crawl down the Ogre. Ogre still attracts lots of climbers.

The Malik twins enjoying the function. [Photo: Alka Kedia]
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The speakers. L to R Doug, his wife, Leo with the Malik twins and Rigzin.
[Photo: Alka Kedia]

Launch of Commemorative Himalayan Journal Issue
The commemorative issue of the Himalayan Journal was launched during
the Annual Seminar. It is produced in the classic style with Articles from
Volume I thru XIV covering up to1947 - The golden age of the Himalayan
Exploration. Ms. Nandini Purandare, our Hon. Editor of the journal talks
about the motivation in the introduction. Our Editor Emeritus Harish
Kapadia traces the journey of the Journal.
Please contact the Himalayan Club office to get your copy. It is a collector’s
copy so please order it now.
The Himalayan Journal being unveiled. Nandini
Purandare, Harish Kapadia and Shailesh Mahadevia.
[Photo: Alka Kedia]

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Kekoo Naoroji Book Award
Doug Scott was the recipient of this years Kekoo Naoroji Book Award for
Himalayan Literature. He received the award for his book Up and About– The Hard Road to Everest. The book talks about the South West Face
Everest Expeditions and eventually he was one of the summiteer in the
successful British Expedition.

Jagdish Nanavati Award for
Excellence in MountaineeringAward for excellence in mountaineering was not awarded due to lack ofappropriate entries.

Jagdish Nanavati Garud Medal
Skalzan Rigzin was awarded the Garud medal this year for his support tothe numerous expeditions to the Himalaya. Rigzin is an old friend of the
HC community. We are very proud of him for the achievement.

Rigzin receiving the JCN award from Sachin Nanavati.
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Annual Dinner
The annual dinner of the Club was held at Mr Tanil Kilachand’s residence inthe tony Nepean Sea Road area of Mumbai to a full house. The generous
hospitality and an excellent Gujrati meal ensured a lively gathering with
with great stories from the mountains.
Harish Kapadia enjoys the company of the beautiful ladies at the dinner.
[Photo: Alka Kedia] Annual Dinner.

The dancing shoes are almost on!
[Photo: Alka Kedia]

The crowd joins the party! [Photo: Alka Kedia]

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Banff Film Festival
The Banff Film Festival has a busy and a pan India schedule.
It has been screened or will be screened in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Surat,
Nashik, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Leh, Nagpur,
Mussoorie, Asansol and Ahmedabad.
Visit the HC site for dates and details.

Arun Samant Memorial Lecture
The Arun Samant Memorial Lecture was held to a record full house on
April 22, 2017 in Mumbai. The five inspiring talks were
1. Crossing Ralam Dhura in the footsteps of W. H. Murray by Rohit Bhat
2. Indian Army Mt Thalay Sagar (6940m) Expedition 2016 by Maj Jay
Prakash Kumar (Leader)
3. My quest for the snow leopard: ten years of explorations in the Spiti
valley of Himachal Pradesh by Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi
4. Our trek to Auden’s Col, Sep 2016 by Sonali Bhatia & Kersi Dastur
5. White Vision: A Journey from Imagination to Exploration by Anindya
Mukherjee
The talks went on until 10 pm with a full house and lively discussions
after the talk.

Visit to Dharamsala
As a part of the 90th year celebration, the HC planned a visit to Dharamsala
to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Forty members and friends joined
for a four day visit from April 23 to 26, 2017 to Dharamsala.
Members from Japan to UK and Ladakh to Bengaluru joined the trip.
Apart from meeting His Holiness, members trekked for a day to Triundon the fringe of Dhauladhar range.
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Arriving at Dharamsala [Photo: Ravi Mariwala]

The lectures don’t stop! [Photo: Ravi Mariwala]

Ravi Mariwala, Motup Chewang and Paula Mariwala[Photo: Ravi Mariwala]

Geeta Kapadia and Paula Mariwala at Norbulingka.
[Photo: Ravi Mariwala]11
On the way to see the His Holiness Dalai Lama [Photo: Ravi Mariwala]THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

The Himalayan Club members with His Holinessthe Dalai Lama.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The Himalayan Club entourage.

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Norbulingka [Photo: Ravi Mariwala]
Waiting patiently. [Photo: Ravi Mariwala]Start of the trek. [Photo: Ravi Mariwala]13

THEtoHIMALAYANCLUB[Photo:
E-LETTER
Stephen contemplating
become a ‘Guru’.
Ravi VOLUME
Mariwala] 36

Divyesh Muni talking him out of it.
[Photo: Ravi Mariwala]14

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Enroute. L to R Stephen Goodwin, Monesh Devjani, Sonal Jain, Rajesh Gadgil andPaula Mariwala. [Photo: Ravi Mariwala]

Glimpses of Dhauladhar [Photo: Ravi Mariwala]

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An easy path. [Photo: Ravi Mariwala]

Enjoying lunch at the top. [Photo: Ravi Mariwala]

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Here is a short report from Stephen Goodwin

A short Sojourn with the Himalayan Club
A short sojourn with the Himalayan Club… too short... the four days in
Dharamsala akin to the house party of an extended family, and one towhich I, the stranger, was admitted unconditionally, with affection andgenerosity. Many thanks to you all for that.
Of course my abiding memory will be of the 90 minutes we spent in thepresence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He does not speak in soundbites and I did not come away with some simple mantra to guide future
conduct. The effect of the audience is more that of a spiritual infusion, arefreshment, and a resolve to adhere to that pervading goodness I think
we all felt.
Maybe that positivity was picked up by the weather as next day a scoreof us straggled up the hillside from Galu Devi to the ridge-top meadow
at Triund. A lovely day, a mix of sunshine and dappled shade wherepines and rhododendrons overhang the trail. “Magic View” was therightly-named chai house looking out over forest and Dharamsala to the
hazy plain: doubly “magic” though the moment on cresting the ridge
at Triund and the snow-mantled Dhauladhar mountains materialise as if
from nowhere, filling one’s vision.
Seated on a rock, close by a Shiva shrine, it is not long before theclimber starts to trace fancied lines up the ridges of Moon Peak and its
Dhauladhar neighbours. But the messages of His Holiness were playing
in my mind too: his emphasis on the universality of human beings; thatnationality, race, creed or caste are merely secondary identities; that if
he thought of himself as the sole Dalai Lama among seven billion humanbeings rather than a brother to all, he would be a “very lonely” person.
Teasing out that thought, and HH’s rejection of nationalism, it struck me
how well (though probably fortuitously) our two clubs are named: theHimalayan Club and the Alpine Club, named not after a state or similar
artificial stockade but simply after magnificent mountains, the common
inheritance of us all.

Stephen Goodwin
Vice-president, the Alpine Club17

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New Beginnings with the Digital Age
The Himalayan Club has also launched a social media site last year. It
has garnered a membership of more than 290,000 members. A truly
remarkable achievement in a short span of time. Do join the group. It is
open to all. The group can be joined athttps://www.facebook.com/groups/TheHimalayanClub/and share your views and news.

Activities of the Delhi Section

The Delhi section of the Club organised three talks since last November.
A brief report by Rama Goyal.

The Lure of Everest – December 4, 2016
Illustrated Talk by Sujoy Das
Ever since the disappearance of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine highon the slopes of Mount Everest in 1924, the mountain has continued
to draw climbers, trekkers, photographers and scientists to the Solo
Khumbu—the high valleys around Everest, the home of the sherpas.
Seasoned trekker and photographer Sujoy Das portrayed the lure of theEverest region through a series of photo essays and a video presentation.
Sujoy’s latest book titled ‘Nepal Himalaya: A Journey Through Time’,an outcome of several trips to Nepal over the years, was also released
after his presentation. Founder of South Col Expeditions, Sujoy’s images
and accompanying essays have featured in The Washington Post, APA
Publications, Outdoor Journal, Outlook Traveller, and several otherprestigious publications. He has co-authored and photographed ‘Sikkim:
A Travellers Guide’ with Arundhati Ray and Lonely Planet’s ‘Nepal for the
Indian Traveller’.

Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour –November 11, 2016
Nine award-winning films were screened as part of the 2015 Banff Mountain
Film Festival World Tour at Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre. The
screening witnessed a packed auditorium and was highly appreciated by
the attendees. Collaboration: Cox & Kings and Mountain Dew
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The Call of Denali – November 2, 2016
Illustrated talk by Prerna Dangi
Prerna Dangi shared the unique experience of climbing in Alaska andthe challenges faced by a two-woman team in their attempt to climb
Denali, the highest mountain in North America unguided. Prerna Dangi
is an aspiring young alpinist and a National-level rock climber. She wasintroduced to climbing through the St. Stephen’s College Hiking Club
during which time she completed her basic and advance mountaineeringcourses from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering andAllied Sports (ABVIMAS) and Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM),
respectively. In 2013, she participated in the first edition of Climbathon,an alpine leadership course organised by the Indian Mountaineering
Foundation (IMF), which led her to explore the alpine approach as
opposed to the classic expedition style of climbing. She has since been
on several expeditions including Mt. CB 13 (6242m), Mt. Khang Shiling(6360m), Mt. McKinley (6190 m), Mt. Bhagirathi II (6510m), and recently
attempted a virgin peak T13 (6431m) in the relatively remote Zanskar
Valley. She has represented India at international climbing meets in
Russia and Scotland and continues to push the limits for Indian womenin the outdoors.

Climbs and Explorations
Tibet
Exploration of Southern Tibet
Exploration of Southern Tibet and remote peaks, valleys and passes of itis synonymous with Tamotsu ‘Tom’ Nakamura. The 82-year-old explorer
has devoted his life to exploration of one of the most remote and difficult
to reach areas of Tibet. His youthful energy at 82 years does not stop
him from publishing and enjoying what he likes the most – exploration,
peaks and valleys. He has conducted 38 expeditions to the region anddocumented them through beautiful maps and photographs. He also edits
the Asian Alpine E-News. These are worth looking at for the photographsof the previously undocumented peaks. These can be reached at
http://asian-alpine-e-news.com/
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Nakamura San has recently published the book East of the Himalaya –Alps of Tibet and Beyond. He considers this as his life’s work. The book is
worth looking at especially the photographs and the golden flying route.
This exploration no wonder has led to an increased interest in climbingof the peaks in this region. Here we have three reports of climbs insouthern Tibet.

International team climbs in Genyen massif, Sichuan - Mt. Hutsa& Peak 5912m
On September 17th, 2016, an international team of climbers from Italy,
UK, Ireland and New Zealand assembled in Litang, in the Tibetan Plateau
in China’s Sichuan Provence. Luca Vallata and Tito Arosio (IT), James
Moneypenny and Peter Linney (UK & EIRE), Tom Nichols and Rob
Partridge (UK and NZ). Heather Swift (UK) was poised to join us half way
through the trip. They were all linked through the expedition mastermind,
James Moneypenny.
James and Peter had arrived in Litang three weeks earlier. They madeuse of a short weather windows in the Sichuan monsoon season, whichruns through August and September. They managed various ascents ofsome stunning granite pillars in the Jarjinjabo Massif, accessing themfrom Litang on hired motorbikes. The rest of the team (excluding Heather)flew into Chengdu and took two days to bus to Litang. They packed the
4x4s and a five hour drive took them to the Rengo Monastery, built at thefoot of sacred mountain Genyen/Genie.
Their hired horsemen arrived with 250cc “horses”. They then strapped
60kgs plus to each motorbike and drove up the narrow, rough andsometimes steep valley path to establish basecamp at 4200m.
That night the team was struck by a magnitude 5.2 earthquake. This filledcamp with thoughts of being on an exposed section of climb during anaftershock. The team felt the aftershocks for a few nights afterwards, but
nothing during the day. After walking down to the old monastery to checkif there was any damage, the team packed for their first trip to advanced
basecamp (ABC) and recce of Husta. The weather was not ideal, but mostdays had a few hours of clear skies and sunshine.
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Tito and Luca decided to spend another day at BC to allow for somemild altitude sickness. The rest of the team spent a day walking to ABC,
seeing Hutsa for the first time on the final approach. Hidden in the centreof the Genyen Massif
After two days, no rains were expected which was their first window fora summit attempt. The team recced the Hutsa area next day for a line ofascent. They found a steep ice line in a hidden couloir on the E/SE face,and some more approachable
lines accessible from the
top of snow cones on thesouth face. They decided on
the right of the two obvious
options: the steeper of thetwo, leading directly to asnow slope that they hoped
would take us to the summit
ridge.

Mt. Hutsa, climbed by James Monypenny andPeter Linney [Photo:Robert Partridge]
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They approached the first pitch
as two pairs, but confidence
waned in one of each pair,due to a lack of recent mixed
climbing or hypoglycaemic
compulsions
which
had
caused all the Snickers bars
to be eaten before even tying
in. This left James and Rob
to attempt the line and see
where it went. With no real
expectations of summiting,they pushed on, swinging
leads with some simul climbing
sections up the 500m couloir,
tending away from leading
blocks as neither of them had
really acclimatised yet.

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They made the snow ramp, which led to the summit ridge. Four longpitches with some interesting steep but short mixed sections led to thesummit from there. They rappelled the last four pitches, and a slightly
more direct line back into the initial couloir, returning to ABC in a roundtrip of 17 hours. They considered the line to be 800m with multiple pitches
up to Scottish 6 / M5, and named it Yak Attack.
At the dawn of the 1st of October, the monsoon season was clearly over.
The wind changed to the north, the summit of Genyen was now visible
for the rest of the time there, and the forecast good. Tito and Luca wereback at BC having recced an unclimbed 6000m peak further up the samevalley approach to Hutsa. They had left kit to return for a summit attemptin the next window.
Having acclimatised by now, and with a better idea of the climbing andconditions on Hutsa, psyche was restored, so they headed back to Husta
ABC for a second round of attempts in our original pairs.
Tom and I attempted our line from days earlier, but found the snow slope
warm, steep and unappealing. We rapped the couloir and returned tocamp. James and Peter made an incredible ascent of the steep ice linein their hidden couloir. They summited long after midnight, returning
to ABC after almost 30 hours, much to the relief of Heather, our latest
team member who had walked into ABC to meet them. James and Petegave the line WI6, M6 and named it Holographic Jesus after buying aholographic wall hanging of Jesus’ Last Supper from the monastery shop!
Meanwhile Tito and Luca had managed to summit their objective: theunclimbed and unnamed 5912m peak S-E from Hutsa. Three days andtwo bivouacs were needed due to uncertain weather on the first day.
They climbed the west face via a system of snow fields and ridges on thesouthern side of the wall. One piton remained on the crux rocky section.
They descended through the north part of the wall. Overall difficulties: D,
M4 70deg snow (30 Sept - 2nd Oct).
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Peter, Tito and Luca left as they had limited time. Strapping their bags toporters’ bikes they headed out of the massif for Litang.
James, Heather, Tom and Rob remained at the basecamp. Inspired by
the splitter cracks in Dave Anderson’s photos, and with a clear weather
window for the remainder of the trip, they headed up a huge hanging
valley with an epic boulder field towards “sharp beaked” Shachun. Tom
and Rob made the first attempt, getting to half height on the left skyline
ridge. The next day James, Heather and Rob climbed the same line,
leading in blocks through mixed ground, snow slopes and initial granite
cracks for seven pitches. James took over and climbed six splitter pitches
up to E2 / 6b, taking the team to the snow cap and last spires of thesummit. Pulling all the tricks out of the bag, James climbed the final
two pitches to “chevaux” the summit spire via some very bold climbing,followed by lassoing of the summit spires.
They returned to ABC, slept, and descended to BC, to find Tom amidst thepacking up of a seven-person, 20-day campsite. They tied the remaining
food and kit to the back of our friendly monks’ bikes and started ourjourney home.
The trip was sponsored by Rab & Vango/Force Ten, the BMC with an
expedition grant and individual sponsors; Tom, Rob, Peter & James - DMM,
Luca Vallata - Scarpa, Grivel, Salewa, Tutto Sport Longarone and Cousin
Trestec, Tito Arosio - Grivel, Kayland, Cousin Trestec and WildClimb,
Heather Swift - Mountain Hardwear
From the report by Robert Partridge

Small Australian-Chinese team explores new ground in Tibet
A team of three Australian and two Chinese climbers rendezvoused inlate October to make the first ascent of the previously undocumented
5678-meter peak they named Xialongrezha to the west of the Genyen
massif in the Shaluli Range, Sichuan, China.
The expedition consisted of Zhang Jiyue, and Alex Tang, both from China,
and climbers Mitch Murray, Rob Baker and Ed Hannam, from Australia.
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Xialongrezha: The red line shows the approximate route of Standing Room Only on
the West Face of Xialongrezha (5678m). The first four pitches are obscured below
the fin of rock. [Photo: Rob Baker]

They climbed Xialongrezha in 12 pitches with some simul climbing andsimul soloing. Some of the pitches were notably run out, and they stopped
about 20 meters short of the summit because of snow conditions on
the smooth rock slabs that didn’t offer any protection, and also “out of
respect for local Tibetan lore.” They called their route Standing Room
Only (Russian Alpine Grade 5a, Scottish IV, M4, 650m).
Hannam wrote the following report on their ascent:Relatively well known, the eastern and central areas of Genyen havebeen visited regularly for over a decade, including ascents by Sarah
Hueniken, Dave Anderson and Joe Puryear,” Hannam wrote. “Mt. Genyen
itself was first climbed in the 1990s by a Japanese team. It wasn’t lost on usthat our trip coincided exactly with the tenth anniversary of the deaths ofCharlie Fowler and Christine Boskoff.
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The western side of the Genyen mountains is accessed via four days
travel along the Sichuan-Tibet Highway from Chengdu via Kangding,
Xinduqiao, the ‘Tibetan Disneyland’ town of Litang and the border town of
Batang, then a small road over a 5000-meter pass almost unknown evento the locals,” Hannam continued. “Twenty-five kilometres from the upper
Yangtze that forms the administrative border, Xialongrezha is prominently
visible from the small hamlet at the end of the road, the name translatingas ‘place of big-horned animals and large boulders.’
We planned to do a first ascent with no additional support, somethingdeveloped over many previous trips to western Sichuan/eastern Tibet.
Going into undocumented terrain completely self-sufficient, our only
limitation was the loads we could carry, acclimation and the weather,having banked on the dependable early winter window directly after thelast squall of the south Asian monsoon and before the first snows arrived.
This year didn’t disappoint, with an unbroken string of fifteen days without
any form of precipitation.
Base Camp was several kilometres from the village through a beautiful
pine and lichen forest to a sunny vale at 4200 meters. A pastoral delight,
with clear aquamarine rushing streams, flocks of pheasants and lazyyaks, we did sorties higher up and after three nights, to consolidate, we
decided to move the entire BC up to 4900 meters rather than just a light‘assault bivy.’ This involved heavy carries up several kilometres of marsh,boulder fields and scree.
Base Camp II was a true high Tibetan location; stark and lunar. By a small
glacially fed lake, the high moraine and room-sized boulders showed nosigns of visitation aside from thirsty antelope and small, colourful birds.
The difference between direct sun and shade was a +20 Celsius and -10
Celsius differential that bookended each day.
From vantage points along the approach, it was clear the premium routeon the west face was the jilted central couloir. We juggled thoughts about
various other route alternatives but confirmed the central couloir after areconnaissance day onto the glacier beneath.
As the route was steep, our acclimation at threshold and the amazing
weather window getting on, we led in blocks, seconding together for speed.
With good teamwork, good rock and solid snow this worked efficiently.
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After soloing the 90-meter glacial snout to the couloir’s base cone, Mitch
powered us through the next three pitches, then Ed led up to and aroundwhere the couloir changed direction, including a long double pitch witha vigorous traverse. This was followed by Rob launching up five run out
pitches on lessening snow quality that ended in a pitch dug through tothe slab below the cornice on the summit ridge. A further half-pitch by[me] confirmed the sketchy snow and serious fall potential, leaving thebizarre summit formation unclimbed out of respect for sanity and local
Tibetan lore.
The couloir presented no good options for bivies so all 12 pitches wereclimbed in a single push, nonstop effort on new terrain.
Experience from previous trips had us carrying an array of alpine pro,but we ended up using a time-proven rack of small- to mid-sized cams
and wires, beaks and pitons and an occasional screw. Aside from theupper two pitches the snow was excellent, with a mix of glacial andalpine ice. Rock in the western cluster is grade-A granite, fissured with
finger- to hand-width cracks splitting contiguous slabs and faces topped
wild gendarmes, gargoyles and features.
Chopping through the cornice we could see eastward into the main
Genyen area, with 6200-meter Mt. Genyen and other 5500-meter-plus
peaks clearly visible. Westward, in the other direction, we could makeout long ranges of robust peaks over 6000 meters beyond the closed
Tibetan border.
At 4 p.m. we began the many rappels that would get us back to campat 10 p.m.
Continuing the good weather streak, we spent the following day laying
on sun-warmed granite boulders and eating before starting the heavily
loaded return to the village. Upon returning to Batang we consumed thehotel’s entire supply of roast duck.
The trip was entirely self-funded.
From The Alpinist
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Tibet’s Jang Tsang Go climbed
On 20 September 2016 Domen Kastelic, Olov Isaksson and Marcus Palm
made what is likely to be the first ascent of Jang Tsang Go (6300m) in
Tibet. The route is called Dom and graded AI4 M5.
Slovenia’s Domen Kastelic and Sweden’s Olov Isaksson and Marcus
Palm have made what they believe is the first ascent of Jang Tsang Go, a
6300m high peak in the West Nyenchen Tanglha mountain range in Tibet.
Base camp was established on a pleasant meadow close to a stream atroughly 5000m. The next two days were used to acclimatize further andobserve the mountain. They hiked to the 5800m summit of a mountainon the opposite side of the valley that provided interesting views onto
Jang Tsang Go. Poor conditions forced them to wait patiently in basecamp, and just before having to leave the area they received the threeday weather window they had been waiting for.
The trio departed on the 18th of September for the NE Face and after fourhours reached a point on the glacier where they pitched their tent andestablished their advanced base camp. A short, restless night followed
and they woke to clouds and wind. They ascended a lower snowfield in
the dark and reached the steepest section of the route at the first light.
Spindrift hampered progress on the first pitches but then they madesmooth progress, climbing for 12 hours. The line they chose offered themsome steep mixed and ice pitches, scratching on the slabs, exposed
ridge climbing and even some wading through deep snow. Close to
the summit but unsure how long the the final stretch might take, theydecided to bivy somewhere on the upper section of the East face, below
a rocky overhang. The next morning they were in no rush and so theywaiting for the sunshine to hit the face before continuing. After the firstpitch they realized they were just below the top, and two pitches later
they summited. Ritual photos were taken and then they descended down
the North side of the mountain; initial abseils led to terrain which theyscrambled down to reach the glacier and return to BC.
The next day they packed up base camp and then made their way to
the Suge La pass, but due to bureaucratic visa problems they initially27THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

failed to reach the Tibetan valley they hoped to explore. They eventually
established base camp close to the village Ji Ma Gang at 4600m but
mountain they hoped to climb remained shrouded in clouds and, with
only four days left, they started their return home.
From Planetmountain

South Face of Shisha Pangma in 13 hours
On May 21, 2017, Hervé Barmasse from Italy and and David Göttler from
Germany climbed the 2200m southwest face of Shisha Pangma (Tibet,
Himalaya) in just 13 hours and in pure alpine style.
They started out from 5,850 meters at 4:45 on Sunday morning. Theyreached 8,024 meters at 5:45 pm the same day. 13 hours precisely toascend the southwest face of Shisha Pangma without supplementary
oxygen, without fixed ropes, without pre-installed camps and of course
without the help of high-altitude porters. In short, a 2200 meters “sprint”
in pure alpine style.

Sikkim and Nepal Himalaya
Kangchenjunga Skyline Project
After having reached 7200m, Simone Moro and Tamara Lunger decided
to end their Skyline Project aimed at traversing the long ridgeline of
Kangchenjunga. The two Italian alpinists were safely back at Base Camp.
Simone Moro and Tamara Lunger’s attempt at Kangchenjunga ended at
7200m but with important experience gained. The two Italian mountaineers
had planned on traversing along the long and difficult ridge of the third
highest mountain in the world.
The Italians broke the news themselves via Facebook, directly from theBase Camp. Moro and Lunger had reached Camp 3 at 6600m and next
day they climbed on up to 7200m. Unfortunately Moro felt weak due tostomach illness that had been troubling him throughout the expedition,and the two took the wise decision to descend to Base Camp.
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New Catalan climbs in Nepal
In a three week trip, Catalan mountaineers Oriol Baró, Roger Cararachand Santiago Padrós climbed two new routes on Nepal’s 6000m peaks:‘Pilar Dudh Khunda’ up the SSW arete of Karyolung (6511m) and ‘NepaliSun’ which terminates at 6900m on the South Face of Numbur (6959m).
The three mountaineers reached Lake Dudh Khunda, situated to thesouth of the Sagarmatha National Park, in mid-October and immediatelybegan observing the three main summits that surround this sacred lake:
Numbur (6959m), Khatang (6853m) and Karyolung (6511m).

Lake Dudh Khunda and the mountains Numbur, Khatang and Karyolung [Photo:
Oriol Baró, Roger Cararach, Santi Padrós]

On 29 October, 2016, within a couple of days of establishing Base Campat 4600m, the trio began climbing up the SSW spur of Karyolung which,after the initial rocky pedestal, leads to a central section of snow androck, before finishing up ramps of snow, ice and mixed terrain. The trio
required two bivouacs and three days overall to establish their Pilar Dudh
Khunda. 1400m long, it breaches difficulties up to VI/6a, AI4, M4. The
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descent was initially carried out along the North Ridge, before heading
down via a series of abseils onto the glacier below. Base Camp wasreached late in the evening on 31 October.
After resting for a day the Catalans slowly ascend the glacier once again
towards the base of Numbur. At 4:00 am on 4 November Baro and Padrosbegan climbing up the south face; the idea was to climb the 1100m that
separated their tent from the summit in a single day but towards 14:30
and at circa 6900, they decided to retreat due to poor snow conditions.
Abseiling down the line of ascent, in less than three hours they returnedto their tent. The attempt has been called Nepali Sun and the 1000m line
has been graded VI/ 5, M4.
From Planetmountain

Three new routes in Nepal’s Rolwaling Valley
In autumn of 2016, Nik Mirhashemi and Mark Pugliese climbed two
potential new routes and one confirmed new route on three different
peaks on their first trip to the Himalaya.
The two Americans arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal, Oct. 10, and spent a
week getting their permits in order before traveling to the village of Na,
which was their hub for the rest of the trip.
“After a few acclimatization hikes and some really fun bouldering we
slept up at Yalung Ri basecamp (4800m),” Mirhashemi said. Yalung Ri(5647m) is a popular trekking peak. The next day, October 23, the twomen headed up what they thought was a new route on Yalung Ri.
“We climbed snowy slabs through a few small rock bands (M4) on thenorth face and then corkscrewed around the east ridge to the south side
after a failed attempt to reach the west ridge,” Mirhashemi said. “Fromthere low fifth-class [climbing] led to the tiny rock summit.”
That’s when they realized they were not on top of Yalung Ri but somethingelse. They had apparently climbed a peak to the north of Yalung Ri known
locally as Norbu Peak (5634m). They descended the way they came andnamed their potential new route Wrong Way Bud (5.6 M4, 500m).
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The pair returned to Na for two days of rest and then set up an advancebasecamp under the west face of Chugimago North (5945m) on the
Yalung Glacier. On October 28 the men climbed “through steep flutings
and a few short mixed sections (M4) on the northwest face to reachthe north ridge.” Mirhashemi said. “Unfortunately, a corniced section ofridgeline prevented us from reaching the true summit and we stopped
100 meters short. We followed tracks from another party down the northridge, rappelling and down climbing to a notch in the ridge. From there
we [rappelled] an 800-foot wall in the dark to the glacier below anddescended to [basecamp].”
They dubbed the potential new route Witness the Sickness (M4 AI4, 75
degrees, 500m).
Following two more rest days in Na the men set up under the West Faceof Chugimago (6258m). The next day, November 1, they started up a line
to the right of the 2014 Slovenian route (M4 90 degrees 900 meters) andon the right side of a “major rock buttress.”“The lower route consisted of steep snow and neve up to 70 degrees
with some short sections of AI3 and M4, most of which we soloed,”
Mirhashemi reported. “A leftward traverse brought us to the base of a
1,000-foot headwall that we climbed in six pitches up to AI5 M6 with one
wild pitch of 80- to 90-degree snow. Once on the north ridge darkness
hit us and we found an excellent bivy site at 6100 meters next to aprominent gendarme. With the long nights this time of year we endureda long, cold night. Electing to go light we had left our sleeping bags andbrought the tent and [puffy jackets]. The next morning, we continued up
the north ridge past a short rock step to the summit.”
Eight rappels and much down climbing returned the pair to basecamp
and they were back in Na that evening. They titled this confirmed newroute Mixed Emotions (M6 AI5, 80 degrees, 900m).
In retrospect, Mirhashemi said that sleeping in a tent with puff jackets
and no sleeping bags “might be a better technique for short nights in the
Alaskan summer” than in the Himalaya.
The trip was partially funded by the American Alpine Club Live Your
Dream Grant.
From The Alpinist
31THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

First alpine style ascent of Gimmigela East’s North Face
On November 8-10 Austrians Hansjorg Auer and Alex Blumel climbed
the previously untouched North Face (M4, 85-degree ice, 1200m) of
Gimmigela East (7005m), the sub-peak of Gimmigela Chuli (7350m) in
Nepal. It was only the third ascent of Gimmigela East after Japanese
teams climbed the peak’s east ridge in 1993 and 1994.
“I guess we were also the first people to reach this mountain from the
Nepal side,” Auer said, citing past records in the American Alpine Journal
and the Himalayan Database.
They trekked for five days through the jungle along the Tamar River,following up the higher plateaus of Ghunsa Valley. The BC was placed alittle further up from Pangpema Base Camp.
The pair started the acclimatizing trips on Drohmo’s South Ridge (6850m)
and after three nights at 5900 meters, they started up on November 8.
Gimmigela East: This photo shows Gimmigela East (7005m) from a vantage point
above the team’s base camp. [Photo: Elias Holzkenecht]

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Due to a wet monsoon with high precipitation they found the 1200-meterhigh face in perfect conditions. After two bivies with the second one on
the final summit ridge they reached the summit on November 10, at 7.30
a.m. A cold, windy but clear morning allowed the duo to see far into
the great mountain range of Sikkim and to the unexplored East Face ofKangchenjunga (8586m).
“It was one of those expeditions where it all came together perfectly.
A great project, an even greater friendship, a fast and light alpine-style
first ascent, and a ‘King Line’ on a 7000-meter peak in one of the mostremote places of the Himalayas,” said [Auer].
From The Alpinist

Everest - Hillary Step collapsed
The Hillary Step, the famous rock barrier located shortly below thesummit of Everest, seems to have collapsed, probably due to the terrible
earthquake that shook Nepal in 2015. British mountaineer and commercial
expedition leader Tim Mosedale broke the news after having reached thesummit of the highest mountain in the world on 16 May 2017.

Kumaun and Garhwal Himalaya
Direct route up Thalay Sagar North Face(6904m)
In September 2016 Russian mountaineers Dmitry Golovchenko, Dmitry
Grigoriev and Sergey Nilov made the first ascent of Moveable Feast(1400m), a difficult new climb the North Face of Thalay Sagar (6904m)
in the Indian Himalayas.
Over a ten day period in mid-September Dmitry Golovchenko, Dmitry
Grigoriev and Sergey Nilov climbed a stunning route up the North Faceof Thalay Sagar in the Garhwal Himalaya. The new route tackles a line up
the huge buttress to the left of the obvious Central Couloir, to the right One
Way Ticket established in 2003 by Frenchmen Stéphaneh Benoist and
Patrice Glairon-Rappaz. On the upper section it crosses Attraverso lo
specchio, the impressive attempt up the NE Ridge carried out in 1994
by the Italians and also the 1983 Polish - Norwegian route.
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Thalay Sagar North Face: The red line marks the route and camps of Moveable
Feast on Thalay Sagar (6904m), India. [Photo: Dmitry Golovchenko]

Golovchenko, Grigoriev and Nilov started up their Moveable Feast on 9
September and, in an remarkable single push, reached the summit on
17 September. They descended via the original route up the mountain,
climbed in 1979 and returned to base camp on 19 September. The overall
grade for the 1400m outing is estimated at Russian 6B (the most difficulton the Russian scale), or ED2, and this breaks down into M7, WI5, 5c
free climbing and A3 aid.
Golovchenko stated: “Our route starts from a crevasse, between ice androck. The first 500-600 meters climb a steep slope of ice and snow. Thenyou deal with the first bastion, vertical rock with sets of cracks all filledwith ice. It took us 2 days to climb 200 meters. Due to the wind andweather conditions even the vertical sections were covered in snow andice. And if you see rock, it most probably means that it is both steep andsmooth. Further up, mixed climbing begins up the 300-400m high, 70-80°
rock barrier. One of the ledges for our tent was under the overhanging
rock (we had to chop some ice to build it) and we found some equipment
there: ropes and some aid climbing gear. We assume it was left by the34

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1994 Italian expedition. One pitch further leads to the summit bastion:
black and quite loose rock, overhanging at 110 degrees. We tried to
bypass this, however we were unsuccessful and eventually decided toclimb it straight up. After the bastion, the final section starts and a snow
slope leads you straight to the summit. Here we took some pictures andlater we found some Indian fixed ropes and used them for the descent.”

Himachal Pradesh
Shiv Shankar – 6050m – First ascent of the North Buttress
After twenty-nine years apart, the fabled duo of Mick Fowler and Victor
Saunders reunited for another first ascent--the North Buttress (ED 1100m)
of Sersank Peak, aka Shiv Shankar (6050m) in the Indian Himalaya on
N Face of Sersank: The red line shows Mick Fowler
and Victor Saunders’ line of ascent on Sersank
Peak (6050m) via the North Buttress (ED 1100m).
[Photo: Fowler/Saunders collection]

Fowler on N Buttress of Sersank: Fowler
climbing on the North Buttress of Sersank Peak.
[Photo: Victor Saunders]35THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

Descent on Sersank: This photo shows the descent route. “[The way down] wasvery complex and satisfying glacial terrain involving several abseils from abalakovs,”
said Mick Fowler. [Photo: Fowler/Saunders collection]

October 3, 2016.
The pair set off up the face September 28 and returned to base camp
after eight days on the go.
“The technical difficulties were exciting, varied and challenging,” Fowler
said. “It was a brilliant and memorable outing. The first day was crossing
the Sersank La to the foot of the face. The second day was slow goingwith powder on steep rock. The third day was mainly a sharp, exposedcrest with powder and rock challenges (crampons removed at one point)
and the fourth, fifth and sixth days were fantastic ice/mixed climbing. Day
7 was mixed/snow climbing to the summit followed by glacial terrain indescent. Day 8 was very complex and satisfying glacial terrain involving
several abseils from abalakovs.”
Fowler’s interest in Sersank began from a report he read several years
ago. It was the British mountaineer Martin Moran who really prompted
our interest in Sersank. Moran had led a trek across the Sersank La in
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2011 and wrote that the north side presented a ‘tremendous north faceof linked White Spiders’A Japanese team credited with the first ascent of the mountain in 2008
stopped 40-meters shy of the true summit after climbing there from thewest side.
“The 150-meter-high rocky summit pyramid was previously unclimbed,”
Fowler said. “The Japanese reported that the local people asked themnot to climb to the summit for religious reasons. We asked about thison our way through the last village but the locals there said they had noobjections to our climbing to the true summit. And so we did.”

Kishtwar Himalaya
A new Route on South face of Brammah II
Kishtwar National Park in the Kashmir region of Northern India recently
reopened in 2012 after a nearly twenty-year hiatus.
After thirty hours of air travel and three days of driving Jeff Shapiro andChris Gibisch found themselves standing on the side of the Chenab Riverwondering how to cross. A hired local guide pointed out a cable trolley,
which they utilized to ferry loads across with the help of porters. Onceon the other side, a six-mile hike to the foot of the glacier led to the basecamp a few miles beyond. Three days later, they found themselves witha base camp four miles from where they had planned. Once camp wasset, Jeff and Chris set out to explore the area, checking conditions andsearching for possible approaches. Each day, they hiked more than ten
miles trying to acclimatize while searching for access to the peaks. It was
warm and the lower portions of the mountains were dry. They focused
their attention on the South Face of Brammah II since its base was at ahigher elevation.
Eventually the cloudless skies gave way to rain. After three patient daysin camp, they began the push for Brammah II. After two days on themove, they reached the base of the South Face and were able to finally
lay eyes on it for the first time. There were two obvious lines, but the37

THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

The South Face of Brammah II (6425) with Chris Gibisch and Jeff Shapiro’s route.
Bivy site is marked in red. [Photo: Chris Gibisch]warm temperatures negated their initially chosen path. Rock fall and wet
slides obliterated the line, so the attention shifted left to a less objectively
hazardous route.
They woke up at two in the morning, and by three, they were on the go.
They needed to get through the initial lower mixed section before thesun came out, and the mountain started coming apart. Conditions werefavourable with the night time freeze and made quick work of the lower
face while a dramatic lightning storm illuminated the sky. By the time thesun reached them, they had a straightforward route of mixed snow, ice
and rock above. As the day progressed, the distant glacier below faded,
so did their clothing. Under the bright sunlight they were down to fleeces.
After 13 hours on the go, Chris climbed to the southwest ridge and founda great bivy site.
The next morning, they were up early, beginning to climb before sunrise.
With less elevation to gain, a shorter day was anticipated. The climbing
progressed as it did the previous day and early on, they reached the38

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crux; the shallow corner of ice and rock turned out to be far moreenjoyable than difficult. Some barehanded rock climbing and dry tooling
kept them smiling as they climbed through the rock band. Jeff and Chris
were now near the top of the South Face proper with what appeared to
be only a few long pitches to go. With the increased altitude, the snow
conditions worsened, and their pace slowed. Chris looked at my watch
and anticipated a summit time of around 5 or 6 p.m. They continued tosimul climb through the snow and ice, inching the way to the summit.
Finally, Chris grabbed the rack and climbed on. Sixty meters later, Chris
was sitting within inches of the corniced summit tethered to the rock at
his feet. Jeff reached by 6:30 p.m., and they enjoyed the spectacularsummit view as the sun dipped to the horizon.
They made approximately five rappels to get off the upper South Faceand onto the lower ice slope. Without a suitable flat spot to bivy, they
chopped seats in the ice and settled in for the night. The next morning,they threaded their way down the lower face, reaching the glacial basin
before the high temperatures could catch them in the danger zone up
high. It took another day and a half to reach the base camp.
The expedition was financed through the Mugs Stump award and CoppDash Inspire award committees.

News & Views
IMF News
Indian Mountaineering Foundation lowers 2017 permit fees to promoteselect peaks
The Indian Mountaineering Foundation recently announced that it
is offering reduced permit fees for 81 select mountains in the Indian
Himalaya. The “promotional scheme” is for this year only.
“The aim of the campaign is to create more interest and awareness about
the vast potential of climbing in the Indian Himalayas,” said Mayank VyasSingh, Honorary Editor for the IMF newsletter, Apex, who was relaying
the information from Wing Commander S.K. Kutty, Honorary Secretary of
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the IMF. “Compared to the number of open peaks above 6000 meters,
the number of foreign expeditions visiting India [is much] less.... Thereis no decline [in visitors], but [there isn’t] much growth either. Also amajority of these expeditions go to just a few popular peaks. Hence theaim was also to attract expeditions to some of the lesser-known peaks
within the Indian Himalaya.”More information is available at the IMF website.

Augmented Climbing Wall
A NEW AND REVOLUTIONARY WAY TO PRACTICE, LEARN &HAVE FUN
Fun Climbing for Everyone
Augmented Climbing Wall combines projected graphics and proprietarybody tracking to create interactive games and training applications. The
games and applications make the training fun, motivate kids to moveand give feedback to help you become a better climber. Augmented
reality climbing is suitable for any skill level and age.

Benefits of Augmented Climbing Wall
Interactive graphics and games maximize the capacity of any wall. Evensmall walls can have hundreds of distinct routes and games that create
new fun challenges for climbers. The highly visual wall is also entertaining
to spectators and can be used for displaying logos and ads.

Useful in Different Locations
It can be installed on existing walls at climbing centres or on new ones
at indoor entertainment centres and playgrounds. A smaller but versatilewall is also ideal for fitness gyms with strict space requirements. The
setup can even be used at events or on mobile walls.
Time Trial is a new interactive rock climbing video game produced byRandori, and hosted at Brooklyn Boulders Somerville twice each month.
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Players are given the opportunity to compete in a dynamic setting
featuring augmented reality on a climbing wall. You have never seen
anything quite like this before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI7kLrpoqMs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwticv9ai_Q

Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey
Hailed as one of the most influential climbers of all time, Fred Beckey
is the original American dirtbag–one who abandons societal norms andmaterial comforts in pursuit of a nomadic mountaineering lifestyle.
This rebel athlete’s lifetime of accomplishments set the bar for the entire
sport. He shattered records with an unparalleled string of superhumanfirst ascents, bushwhacking trails, and pioneering direct routes thought
previously impassable.
Beckey burned bridges, eschewed fame and thrived as a loner so that
his only obligation would remain conquering the next summit. He kept
meticulous personal journals where he mused on everything from arcane
geology to his romantic life, to the myriad sunrises he witnessed fromvantages not seen by anyone else on Earth. An environmentalist before
there was such a term, Beckey’s legacy includes 13 essential books thatact as blueprints for new generations. He is still defiantly climbing today
at age 94.
The videos are worth a watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05RiYBruHpU
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dirtbagmovie/dirtbag-the-legend-offred-beckey-a-feature-docume

Piolets d’Or Awards – 2017
Jeff Lowe is the recepient of the 2017 Life Time Achievement Award.
The honoured Ascents for 2017 are received by Paul Ramsden and Nick
Bullock from UK for their ascent of Nyachen Tanglah (7046m) in Tibet andthe Russian team of Dmitry Golovchenko, Dmitry Grigoriev, and Sergey
Nilov for their ascent of Thalay Sagar (6904m) in India.
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Obituaries
Warwick Deacock
Warwick Deacock was the Hon. Local Secretary of the Himalayan Clubin Australia for 27 years. He will be dearly missed by the club.
Warwick Deacock, who
has died aged 90, was amountaineer, entrepreneur,conservationist and roving
adventurer; after serving
as a marine during the war,
he became an experienced
alpinist,
emigratedtoAustralia, where he set up
the Duke of Edinburgh’s
Award Scheme, and later
introduced camel trekking
to the Australian outback.
He was born in London
on December 23 1926 Warwick and Antonia Deacockand educated at Stamford
School, Lincolnshire. He developed an early love of adventure, serving as
a bicycle messenger during the Blitz, but his passion for wild places was
sparked when his school was evacuated to Wales.
In 1943 he ran away from school to join the Royal Marines, where hegained his Commando Green Beret. He was later commissioned as a
2nd lieutenant and sent to the Far East at the end of the war. After being
appointed OIC at Stanley Prison, Hong Kong, where suspected Japanese
war criminals were interrogated, he commanded a motor launch assigned
to hunt opium smugglers.
Having learnt to climb as a commando, after demobilisation in 1947 hespent three years interspersing mountaineering and sailing trips withvarious jobs, including long distance lorry driving. In 1950, however, hedecided to join up again, as a regular officer in the Middlesex Regiment.
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For most of the next decade his adventuring took place within the Army;he had attachments to the Parachute Regiment (during which period heclimbed two virgin peaks in Alaska) and to the Foreign Legion in IndoChina. He served a tour as CO of the British Forces Ski and Mountain
School in the Austrian Alps and helped to set up Adventure Training aspart of the military curriculum of all three services.
In 1956 he joined the SAS and was involved in missions in the Malayan
jungle during the communist insurgency before being sent to Oman. He
was a leading member, in 1958, of the Joint Service Expedition which
made the first ascent of Rakaposhi, in the Nagar Valley, Pakistan.
In 1959, by now having reached the rank of major, Deacock resigned his
commission and, accompanied by his South African wife Antonia andhis infant daughter, he emigrated to Australia. There he started the firstAustralian Outward Bound School on the Hawkesbury River in New South
Wales, and introduced, with much success, the Duke of Edinburgh’s
Award Scheme.
With his young family Deacock then spent a year travelling around
Australia in a VW van and worked as a grave digger in Queensland, abiscuit-creamer in Melbourne and a pub bouncer. He also continued his
climbing, attempting, in 1963, to conquer Big Ben, the active volcanothat dominates Heard Island in the southern Indian Ocean. The attempt
was unsuccessful and Deacock and his companions only just escapedwith their lives, having at one stage been reduced to eating raw penguin.
Undaunted, two years later he organised another expedition, andpersuaded the explorer and mountaineer Major Bill Tilman to accompany
him as sailing master of Patanela, the 63 ft. schooner Deacock had
chartered for the eight week approach voyage. When the five man
climbing team attempted to land on the island’s lava beach their inflatablecapsized three times before they were able to get ashore. None theless, they reached the summit, due, in no small measure, to Deacock’s
leadership skills.
Deacock’s next project was to set up Ausventure, a specialised travel
agency, in conjunction with Mountain Travel, the firm his old friend
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the Gurkha Colonel Jimmy Roberts was creating in Nepal. In 1967
Ausventure organised the first ever holiday trek to Everest Base Camp.
It was a great success, and pioneered the kind of adventuring for which
Australian backpackers would become well known. Deacock went on to
make numerous trips to Nepal, India and South America, and led twoAustralian mountaineering trips in the Himalayas in the 1970s. In 1988 heand his wife spent eight months trekking the length of the Nepalese andIndian Himalaya. He was Honorary Nepalese Consul General in Australia
for 10 years.
Having first encountered camel travel during his time in Oman, Deacockbecame intrigued by possibility of doing the same in Australia. Afghancamels had been used for transport in the outback until replaced by trucks
the 1920s, but they still roam wild in the Australian deserts. With the helpof Rex Ellis, who was re-domesticating the camels, Deacock organised
desert camel treks. Deacock himself crossed the Gibson desert and the
Simpson Desert by camel and in 1997 he made the first camel crossingof the Great Victoria Desert.
The same year he was awarded the Order of Australia for his services toconservation and the environment.
In later life, Deacock and Antonia, an architect, moved from the Sydneyarea to a house she had designed at Maleny, overlooking the GlassHouse Mountains. After her death in 2012 he returned to the south, often
staying in a yurt in the bush at Chakola.
He is survived by a son and a daughter.
From the TelegraphUeli Steck
The renowned mountaineer Ueli Steck, known for his rapid ascents of
the Alps which earned him the nickname the “Swiss Machine”, died inan accident in Nepal near Mount Everest.
Steck, who was 40 and one of the most celebrated climbers of his
generation, was killed after falling to the foot of Nuptse, according to44

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Mingma Sherpa of the Seven Summit Treks company that had organised
the expedition.
Sherpa told Reuters that Steck’s body had been recovered and was
being taken to Kathmandu.
Kamal Prasad Parajuli, an official with Nepal’s department of tourism,
confirmed Steck had died while climbing Nuptse and that he had planned
an ascent of Everest.
Parajuli said Steck, who climbed Everest in 2012, had slipped and fallen
1,000 metres (3,300 feet) in the Western Cwm along the normal route toEverest.
In a statement, the climber’s family
said the circumstances surrounding
his death were still unclear. “Thefamily is infinitely sad and asks thatthe media refrain from speculating
about his death out of respect for
Ueli,” they said. “As soon as reliable
information becomes available, themedia will be informed.”His death prompted tributes fromthe climbing community.
The
BritishMountaineering
Council tweeted: “RIP Ueli Steck:legendary mountaineer and allround great guy.”
The writer and climber Ed Douglas
also said Steck’s nickname had
Ulei Steckfailed to capture the essence of theman. “One thing Ueli Steck wasn’t and that’s a machine,” he tweeted.
“Warm and at times surprisingly fragile. But not a machine.”
Steck was the first casualty in the spring mountaineering season in Nepal
that began in March and will end in May. Hundreds of foreign climbers
are on the mountains to attempt to scale Himalayan peaks in May when
there are a few windows of favourable weather.
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THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

He was best known for his speed-climbing, including setting several
records for ascending the north face of the Eiger, a classic mountaineeringpeak in the Bernese Alps that he climbed in two hours and 47 minutes
without using a rope.
In 2013, he achieved Nepal after almost dying in a fall there in 2007.
For that he received the Piolet d’Or, the following year.
In 2015, Steck decided to climb all 82 peaks in the Alps higher than
4,000m, travelling between mountains by foot, bike and paraglider only.
He completed the feat in 62 days, helping cement his reputation.
Steck once said he considered himself an outsider on the mountaineering
scene because athletic achievement was more important to him thanadventure.
In a recent post on his website, he reflected on the transience of successin mountaineering and the inevitable decline that comes with age. “Arecord is broken again and again, and the world keeps on turning,” hewrote. “You are getting older and there comes a time when you have toadjust your projects to your age.”He suffered a setback during his last trip to Everest, in 2013, when hebecame involved in a violent altercation with a group of local guides. On
his return this year, he aimed to perform a quick climb of Everest andnearby Mount Lhotse, including an overnight stop at more than 8,000m,
an altitude known as the “death zone” because the human body’s
performance is reduced to 20% of its normal rate.
Speaking to the Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger last month about his
expedition, he said: “When I’m on Everest I can stop at any point. The
risk is therefore quite small. For me it’s primarily a physical project. Either
I get through, or I don’t have the strength for the whole traversal.”
Asked about how he measured success, Steck told the paper: “Of course
I want to climb Everest and Lhotse. But that’s a very high goal. Failure
for me would be to die and not come home.”
From The Guardian46

THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

The man to remember
The side of Ueli not mentioned in the press
The latest controversy about the ascents’ proofs of Ueli’s saddened meimmensely. Particularly as there seemed to be a self-selected tribunal
set up at the Piolets d’Or, the very event that I chose to award Ueli anda team of climbers for their amazing feat at the attempt to save Inaki
Ochoa’s life in 2008.
I have always advocated to leave the benefit of the doubt if there is no
physical proof of an ascent. What are the consequences of one climber
falsely claiming that he made an ascent? Whose business is it to judge
whether a claim is true or not? Ah, here comes the word : business.
Could it be that the sponsors of the other sponsored climbers might
try and align the false exploits and pressure their sponsored climbers
to do the same or better? Could it be the jealousy of other sponsoredclimbers not getting as such a rich sponsoring package as the so-called
liar climber?
There are no serious consequences to humanity of a summit is falsely
claimed by a rogue climber. No one is going to die from it. If a scientist
claims a false result, the consequences can be more serious. But
mountaineering is a game of no gain whatsoever for humanity. And
please do not quote the so-called scientific expeditions. I know themand they are mostly an excuse for some climbers to get a grant to collectsome samples. The only gain is very personal: ego and sponsorship.
Which brings me to what can mountaineering bring to humanity? One aspect
it can highlight and we have tried to do it by setting up the high altitude
mountain rescue award, Spirit of Mountaineering, is morality, a big word,
maybe not too fashionable in the current political climate. There is a sense
in rewarding ethics when they are played out in an increasingly mediatised
World as an example of good behaviour. Nothing beats acts. And that isexactly what Ueli did in 2008 when he risked his life and jeopardised his
own summit attempt to try and save Inaki Ochoa’s life. He went up solo toreach Inaki, without proper equipment. Inaki died in his arms.
This is the man I would like to celebrate.
Françoise Call
Trustee, Spirit of Mountaineering
Ex Hon. Sec. The Alpine Club47

THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

Erich Abram, the last Italian K2 mountaineer
South Tyrolean mountaineer Erich Abram passed away on Monday 16
January 2017 at Bozen aged 95. The talented mountaineer and climber
played an important role in the 1954 Italian expedition that made the first
ascent of K2.
Born in 1922 in Sterzing, South Tyrol, Abram died on Monday aged 95
having led an intense and adventurous life. His love for climbing andmountaineering began at an early age, and as a youngster he quickly
distinguished himself as one of the most accomplished grade VI climbersof his generation. It comes as no surprise that his most famous first
ascents are in the nearby Dolomites. These include the famous Abram- Führe up the SE Face of Piz Ciavazes in the Sella group, as well as
routes up the West Face of Sass Pordoi and up the North Face of Cima
Grande di Lavaredo.
Abram however is known above all for the fundamental role he played in
the famous 1954 expedition to K2. Apart from having been one of the mostactive during the initial phases of the climb, preparing both camps andthe route, it was Abram who gave Walter Bonatti and hunza Amir Mahdi afundamental hand in transporting the oxygen bottles above Camp VIII. The
next day these enabled Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni to climb
to the summit. On that Friday 30 July 1954 Abram stopped, absolutely
exhausted and completely spent, at 8000m, leaving his two climbing
partners with the task of breaching those final 100m to reach the agreed
meeting point with Compagnoni and Lacedelli, who had preceded them.
Before descending to Camp VIII Abram and his two partners had been
in voice contact with the other two leaders. In short, there was no way ofknowing how events would then unfold: the two groups failed to meet,and Bonatti’s and Mahdi’s endured a terrible bivouac out in the open
at 8100m. This episode narrowly, miraculously missed transformed into
tragedy and proved highly controversial in the years that followed. In
the official reconstruction of the turn of events Abram was on the main
witnesses also because, thanks to his specialization in refrigeration, he
had also been responsible for the oxygen bottles.
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THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

But K2 aside, Erich Abram’s life proved to be truly intense and special.
It is recounted in the book “Erich Abram, un alpinista bolzanino - analpinist from Bolzano” written by Augusto Golin which, with previously
unpublished material, recounts the thousands of adventures of theSouth Tyrolean: from the war in Russia to becoming a prisoner of war,
his climbs in the Dolomites, his first flights and rescues as a pilot, hislove for exploration and climbing mountains. Yes, Erich Abram was thelast mountaineer of that legendary K2 of the Italians, but he was also a
protagonist and player of an era that no longer exits.
From Planetmountain49THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

Office bearers of the Himalayan Clubfor the year 2017
Officers
President

Tanil Kilachand

Vice President

Motup Chewang

				Divyesh Muni
Dr. Kallol Das

Hon. Treasurer

Deepak Bhimani

Hon. Secretary

Nandini Purandare

Members of the Committee
Shailesh Mahadevia

Dr. Raghunath Godbole

Rishad Naoroji

Rajesh Gadgil

Debabrata Mukherji

Dr. Ravi Mariwala

Gp. Capt. V. K. Sashindaran

Ratnesh Jhaveri

Dinesh Korday

Additional Members of Balloting Committee
Monesh Devjani

Manik Banerjee

Ravindra Apte

Falgooni Mehta .

Hon. Local Secretaries
India
AlmoraBangalore
Darjeeling
Delhi
Jammu & Kashmir
Kolkata

Himanshu Pandey
Kamlesh Venugopal
Dorjee Lhatoo
Maninder Kohli
Sat Paul Sahni
Niloy Chakraborty

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THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

Leh

Motup Chewang

Manali

Mahavir Thakur

Mussoorie

Stephen Alter

Mumbai

Rohit Bhatt

Pune

Dr. Raghunath Godbole

ShimlaDeepak Sanan

Uttarkashi

Depender Panwar

ImphalYamden Laba

Overseas
Australia
FranceKorea
New ZealandPakistan
Spain
South Africa
SwedenSwitzerland
U.K
U.S.A.
		

Garry Weare
Claude Gardien
Bae Seung Youl
John Nankervis
Nazir Sabir
Jose Paytubi
Dr. S. A Craven
Ake Nilsson
Eric Bernhardt
Derek Buckle
Donald Goodman
Paddy Iyer

Hon. Editor
Hon. Librarian
Hon. Asst. Librarians
		
Hon. Asst. Equipment Officer
Hon. Asst. Treasurer
Web Master
E-Letter Editor
E-Group Moderator				President Emeritus
Editor Emeritus

Nandini PurandareGroup Capt V K Sashindran
Rajeev Das (Mumbai)
Debraj Datta (Kolkata)
Subhashis Roy (Kolkata)
Rajarshi Roy (Kolkata)Dinesh Korday
Dr. Ravi Mariwala
Cdr. K. B. Singh
Divyesh Muni
Dinesh Korday
Dr. M.S. Gill
Harish Kapadia
51

THE HIMALAYAN CLUB E-LETTER VOLUME 36

Saunders following a ridge to summit: Saunders follows a ridge en route to thesummit. [Photo: Mick Fowler]

Edited by

Dr. Ravi Mariwala
Published for the Himalayan Club
Himalayan Club Centre, 314, Turf Estate, Shakti Mills Lane,
Off Dr. E. Moses Road, Mahalaxmi [West], Mumbai 400011, India.
Phone: [91-22] 24912829
Website: www.himalayanclub.org
If you do not wish to receive the e-letter, please let us know at info@himalayanclub.org(For private circulation only)52