South Simvu: Kanchenjunga’s last kept Secret
Text & Photographs: Anindya
Mukherjee
“Maps, if caviare[1]
to the general, are, as Louis Stevenson
has insisted, very suggestive to persons with proper imagination.” - Douglas
Freshfield, Round Kangchenjunga, p-20
Story of maps and an
invisible glacier
For the last few years I have been trying to explore the
valleys and glaciers of the south-eastern flanks of Kangchenjunga. To be a bit
more specific, my explorations were focused on the little or completely unknown
glaciers like Talung, Tongshyong ,South Simvu glaciers and the valley system
created by their rivers ( Rukel-Rongyoung or Talung Chu) emanating from
them.
From the
south summit of Kangchenjunga (8476m) a high ridge extends east separating the
Zemu glacier valley on the north from South Simvu, Tongshyong and Talung
glaciers to the south. These three glaciers form the head of the Talung Basin.
Although both Tongshyong and Talung glaciers have been visited by explorers
(Talung, for the first time in 1890 by J. Claude White and Tongshyong in 1920
by Harold Raeburn) before; one glacier remained completely unknown- the South
Simvu Glacier.
Figure 1 John Claude White's map of Sikkim and Bhutan (published
by RGS 1910) shows Talung, Tongshyong and Passanram glaciers
How come a whole glacier in the close vicinity of the mighty
Kangchenjunga stood unnoticed this long is a fascinating story! I can accept and
fully understand its oversight by the explorers of early 1900s. The lack of a
detailed map is always a major hindrance for the exploring kind. But in this
curious case of South Simvu glacier, it was simply not there! Col. Waugh’s map of 1848 and Sir Joseph
Hooker’s map of 1849 (and subsequently of 1854) naturally did not have any
detail of the Talung valley as no one had ventured there yet. John Claude
White’s crossing of the Guicha la and subsequent journey down the Talung Chu
gorge in 1890 resulted in another map (The Geographical Journal 1910. Figure- 1).
This map brought a new light. Talung and Tongshyong glaciers got noticed here
for the very first time. But the most significant work of cartography happened
with Douglas Freshfield’s ‘high level tour’ of the Kangchenjunga in 1899. Freshfield
was accompanied by cartographer Prof. E.J. Garwood. Professor Garwood’s map was
very close to being perfect in reference to the other glaciers in the same
valley, namely Talung, Tongshyong, and even Passanram glaciers. But there was
no sign of South Simvu. The cause of the invisibility of the glacier in
Garwood’s map is self explanatory today, when one reads Prof. Garwood’s
comments on how he had drawn this particular section in his map, “ ...in the case of heads of the glens under
Si-imvovonchum and Siniolchum, from sketches made by Mr. Freshfield from above
Gantok.”[2]
It is quite obvious that any map of a jagged terrain of Himalayan scale,
drawn with inputs from observations made from as far as (and as low) Gangtok
surely cannot be without errors.
Figure 2 Prof E. J. Garwood's map shows Talung, Tongshyong and
Passanram glaciers but no South Simvu
Interestingly, this glacier did not appear in the knowledge
base until the recent mappings done by the Swiss (Sikkim Himalaya map of 1951).
This was later incorporated by the American Army Corps of Engineers map of 1955. However, a very clear depiction of Upper
Talung region, especially of South Simvu that drew my attention most is Tadashi
Toyoshima’s map of 1977. In all my expeditions in Sikkim Himalaya so far, I have
used Toyoshima’s map for preliminary planning and found it to be very accurate
despite this map not being a topographical one.
The Protagonists
J. Claude White’s journey through the Talung gorge and
Freshfield’s epic tour around Kangchenjunga opened doors for exploring
mountaineers. Starting from Harold Raeburn (1920) to H.W.Tilman (1938), the
visitors of upper Talung valley had a few distinct, yet limited objective-
climbing. Mount Pandim (6691m), the Zemu Gap (5861m) and the Kangchenjunga
remained their centre of attraction. Everything else around was overshadowed.
Once they were done with their efforts and attempts, they did not have enough
time or energy to stay back and look around in this inhospitable part of remote
Sikkim. The only significant exploratory trip in the Raeburn-Tilman era
(1920-1938) was taken by a small team of Paul Bauer’s party (1937). They
crossed the great East Ridge from north (Zemu Glacier) and entered the middle
Talung Valley via a col located at the head of Passanram glacier. While doing
their crossing in October 1937, they in all probability could not have noticed
the existence of South Simvu glacier as ‘their’ col never gave them the optimal
and strategic elevation to have a sneak peek on what lay immediately south of
the Simvu twins.
This era was followed by a complete absence of exploratory action
in this valley till 1975 and the second phase of exploratory action began. But
this second phase concentrated on what their predecessors left unfinished and a
series of onslaught on Zemu Gap started. Thus, in spite of being visible from
the 1950s, South Simvu remained unnoticed till our visit in May 2014[3].
As a mountain explorer from heart myself, I looked at this blank in the map as a
loadstone sending out strong vibrations of invitation.
Figure 3 Tadashi Toyoshima's map of 1977
Exploration of South
Simvu
In April-May 2014, I was part of an expedition (Alberto
Peruffo) that aimed to explore the Tongshyong glacier and Talung glaciers
further. While my colleagues were busy and happy looking at the possibilities
of countless new routes all around, I decided to head off in the direction of
the last unexplored glacier of the Talung Valley; the South Simvu. Our base
camp was near the confluence of Talung and Tongshyong streams, almost in the
same camping ground as our Zemu Gap expedition of December 2011.
Figure 4 the junction of Talung and Tonshyong Chu. Base camp
tents are visible. Pandim's north face in the background
From the observations made during my previous three
expeditions in 2011, I had formed a fair idea on how to approach the South
Simvu glacier, which like Tongshyong lay completely out of sight from the
Talung gorge. Signs, such as old, settled moraine ridges and a powerful stream
coming from the direction of Mount Simvu, suggested strongly of a glacial
existence. But, it was not visible. We assumed it has withdrawn its reaches
higher up to a shelf and has become a hanging glacier. Old terminal and lateral
moraines, braided outwash stream; all suggested the classic case of a cirque
glacier in our disposal here. Signs were abound to argue in favour of its
retreat from a previously greater extension. How and when did South Simvu
retreat? Well, this can only be diagnosed by a glaciologist but, my thought was
that, as a climbing problem, a cirque or hanging glacier often offers a more
severe challenge than that of a valley glacier? What will this one throw at us?
On 3 May, 2014, along with Thendup Sherpa, Lakpa Sherpa, I
left base camp and kept following the steep right lateral moraine coming down
from the direction of South Simvu. After a continuous climb of 5 hours we
reached a big, slightly overhanging rock cliff. Interestingly, during the
entire days of April-May 2014, the whole of upper Talung valley engulfed itself
in thick fog latest by 9 in the morning. This pattern of early white-out lasted
for nearly 4 weeks of our stay inside the gorge. The same thing happened on
that day as well, allowing us no chance for a better visibility. Later in the
day, we took shelter below that overhang cliff.
For the next two days we did reconnaissance trips further up
the valley hoping for a clearer day. Finally one morning, before the clouds
came up rushing, we saw the outline of an icefall that announced South Simvu’s
presence. To the delight of our exploratory mind, we saw the twin summits of
Simvu rising above the icefall. This re-affirmed our motivation and on 6 May,
2014, myself and Thendup Sherpa left our overhang shelter hoping to cross the
first ice fall obstacle and set up a high camp. An easy snow gully to the true
right of the icefall gave us access to the upper plateau of the glacier. Due to
poor visibility and bad snow conditions it took us nearly 7 hours to reach the
neve of the glacier. We pushed on and camped at around 5300m.
An attempt on peak
6350m
From the Swiss contour map I had in my disposal, I was aware
of the existence of two unnamed 6000m peaks close to me somewhere. Peak 6350m
and Peak 6130m are located on the ridge running south east, dividing Tongshyong
and South Simvu glaciers. Now that we have actually entered the South Simvu, my
immediate attention was drawn towards those unclimbed 6000m peaks. But, due to
poor visibility, we got no bearings on our position that entire day (6 May,
2014) and waited patiently for the early hours of the next morning, when we
thought, would be able to orient ourselves.
Figure 5 view of Siniolchu over the 5215m unnamed col. the rock
needles on the watershed between Passanram and Jumthul Phuk glaciers also
visible on immediate right of col. Photo taken from our high point on peak
6350m
7 May, 2014. We woke up to great expectations! Today, we
will see and document a glacier that was never seen before! We felt fortunate
and a bit proud to be the first! Thankfully, we were not disappointed with the
view that morning. To our north Simvu twins (6812m-West and 6811m-East) looked
gigantesque and dominated the skyline. To our NNE, after a stretch of a snow
field full of crecentric crevasses, we could clearly see a col (5215m) a bit
lower than our campsite sharply dropping to the Passanram (also referred to as
Umaram Kang glacier in some maps) side. Above and beyond that 5215m col rose
Siniolchu (6887m) in all its grandeur.
To our east, right across the glacier (to the south of 5215m col) rock
peaks 5666m and Lhokamburichi ( 5495m) formed the boundary wall between South
Simvu and Passanram glaciers. Looking at the unmistakable thumb like feature of
Lhokamburichi, I realised that this is the ridge that one can see from lower
Talung valley while looking at Simvu. This is the ridge that completely hides
South Simvu glacier from its east and south east. This is the reason it never
came out in the sketches made by Freshfield from above Gangtok!
Figure 6 Kangchenjunga in the background. Zemu Peak in the centre. The ridge in centre foreground is the lhokamburichi ridge that guards
South Simvu glacier.
Figure 7 Lhokamburichi as seen from South Simvu glacier
To our South we could see Narsing (5825m); Jopuno (5936m)
group of peaks, Pandim (6691m) and to our immediate NW stood the two unnamed
peaks 6350m and 6130m respectively.
Without wasting much time Thendup and I roped up and started towards the
nearest objective from our campsite, peak 6350m.
Figure 8 the false summit of peak 6130m on the left and Simvu west on the right
Within next 4 hours we climbed through a narrow gully to the
east of peak 6130m and reached the base of the false summit rock pyramid of peak
6130m. We were just a roped up party of two and it did not take us long to
decide that we were not bagging any peaks that day. To climb the rock pyramid
would need protection, which none of us were carrying in our lightweight push.
When we left base camp, the highest we were hoping to achieve was to find and
reach the right glacier. And when we reached the glacier, we took our ambition
a level higher, to climb an unclimbed 6000m! Such is the human nature.
We were close to 6000m and our high point worked as a
perfect vantage point for exploratory photo documentation and so I told myself
to be happy with what achieved and retreat. From our high point we could
photograph some extra ordinary views of the head of South Simvu glacier, Simvu
twins, Siniolchu and even its rock needles over the Passanram valley. It was
nearly midday, and snow conditions got worse than ever. Thendup and I have been
climbing together nearly a decade now and hence trusted in each other’s belay.
We reached camp in complete whiteout. Packed up heavy next morning and happily
started down towards base camp.
South Simvu glacier is not invisible anymore.
Figure 9 view of Siniolchu from our high camp in the South
Simvu glacier
Team: Anindya Mukherjee, Thendup Sherpa, Lakpa Sherpa
Time: May 2014
Summary: Exploration of South Simvu glacier in Sikkim
Himalaya
Post script: Following our visit, my Italian expedition partners went into South Simvu glacier in a more prepared manner. The Italian group led by Alberto Peruffo reached the col 5215m and climbed peak 5666m. They also climbed the ridge between Simvu and Peak 6350m, new col of 6036m, crossing the glacier in all directions,
For more details of the Italian Exploratory Expedition visit the following links:
http://altitudini.it/stiamo-
http://www.k2014.it/
For more details of the Italian Exploratory Expedition visit the following links:
http://altitudini.it/stiamo-
http://www.k2014.it/
[1]
Spelling unchanged
[2] Freshfield, Round Kangchenjunga, page-304
[3] Refer to HJ Vol. 68, page-37 for a list of
exploratory activity in the Talung Valley