Prologue to Africa: Part III
Rebirth in
the hills: From the heartland of Garhwal to Unknown Spiti
Kuari Pass trek and the Singekang
Expedition
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| Dunagiri and Nandadevi from Gorson top |
The Kuari
pass is a wonderful trail offering a grand panoramic view of many of the famous
Himalayan summits like Chaukhamba 7138m, Nilkantha 6596m, Dunagiri 7066m, Kamet
7756m, Mana 7272m, Trishul 7120m and Nandaghunti 6309m and of course Nanda Devi
(7816m) and yet just the trek one would like to take if he/she is taking their
first steps in this “devabhumi”-the land of Gods, Garhwal.
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| Ronti, Trisul and Nandaghunti |
By mid
October, 2010, after overcoming massive landslides en route our team was in
Auli, the starting point of our trek. The sight of Dunagiri and Nanda Devi was
simply out of this world. For me it was like a rebirth in the hills. With every
bout of violent cough I had, I knew I have come so far and there was no
stopping. The mountains at night and at dawn were silent witness of my struggle
(it was around those hours the nasty coughing bouts would visit me and stay
with me for some time) for recovery and I felt blessed to be there beneath
their shadow. I was also in good company. Arindamda ( Arindam Mukherjee),
supportive as he always was, stood by my side from the hospital days to the
meadows of Gorson. His friends (Bill Goers, Francois Lecerf, Madame Lecerf) and
family (Sipra Mukherjee and Ruku) never let me feel like an outsider, a mere
guide. It was an extended family out on a Himalayan hike. I will always have
fond memories of Kuari Pass.
 |
| team posing on top of Kuari Pass |
This Kuari
Pass trek gave me another opportunity to check my lung performance and over all
recovery once again. It was like a second level check after my days in Tumling,
on the Singalila Ridge the month before and acted as a stepping stone prior to
the dry and cold days of Singekang Expedition ahead.
 |
| Singekang gorge |
I knew what lay ahead of
me in terms of Spiti and the job of exploring a completely unknown terrain. It
certainly was not going to be easy for the following factors:
1- Nothing was known about the valley we
wanted to penetrate and hoped to climb the 6000m mountain at its head,
Singekang. No one had gone there before us.
2- The time of our expedition being end
of October and through November, we knew this would be particularly cold
3- We will have real hard time in
finding porters
All the
above fears came to be true. But in the end we overcame all odds because we
were lucky to have an extra ordinary team. Alan’s (Alan Tees, then president of
Mountaineering Ireland) mature leadership style and Jeremy’s (Dr Jeremy
Windsor) experience had a synergistic effect on the rest of us (George
Carleton, Sandra Kennedy, Andrew Tees, Martin Boner, Thendup Sherpa, and I).
 |
| high camp Singekang Expedition |
No porters
could be persuaded to work with us in spite of the intervention of my good
friend Tsering Lara. I cannot blame them for that. Porters expect and need a
trail. We did not have any. For many days my Sherpa crew and all the members
had to force a route and ferry loads through the cold, unstable gorge of the
Singekang stream and we eventually managed to set up a BC almost half way up
the valley.
I had no
plans to climb to the summit but managed to reach the high camp, while rest of
the team put up a bold attempt on Singekang. During the assault, Jeremy got his
toes frostbitten ( a legacy of Everest for him) and together with Andrew, I got
down quickly to the road head Poh and then to Kaza, so that Jeremy can get to
warmer and lower places soon. The rest of the team did a first ascent of a
5500m peak. Not a bad show after all!
 |
| Singekang, the ridge attempted is in the centre |
One can read
a brief report of Singekang Expedition 2010 in the link provided here:
My coughs
did not fade away though. The coughing bouts seemed to last longer and grew
violent sometimes with traces of blood coming out. Jeremy assured me that
coughing in this high altitude was the best exercise I could give to my
recovering lungs and that felt real good therapy to me!
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| my special room in the sakya abode hotel at kaza |
2010 was
coming to an end and what a year it had been! I had been close to death, a very
painful one and before the year was over I was fortunate to be back on the
mountains and the life I live for. I was already looking forward to new
adventures. Work was not looking up in the first few months of 2011 and that
gave me an opportunity to venture and plan out on some of my own projects - explorations
around two of Indian Himalaya’s most admired mountain ranges, Nanda Devi and
Kangchenjunga. Singekang remains unclimbed to this day. I have not had a chance to go back since. May be some day soon I will.
End of Part
III
10th
May, 2012
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