Nelion SE Face 2020- a Report

Introduction
My first visit to the continent of Africa happened in 2005 and the sole purpose of that trip was to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. No sooner had I finished the ascent to the roof of Africa, than I was invited by a complete stranger to visit his newly erected chapel in a remote village outside Arusha. ‘If you want to see the Real Africa you must come to my village,’ he said, and I followed him just like a hypnotized human being. My love affair with Africa started that day and I kept going back to Africa ever since. In 2012, I set out on my bicycle from Nanyuki, Kenya to Walvis Bay, Namibia; covering 5000 kms, across 5 countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, and Namibia) in 69 days. This trip changed my approach towards life, and my love and understanding of Africa became deeper. To me, since then, the real Africa has been its people. Moreover, it is in this trip, I saw Mt. Kenya for the very first time. 

On top of Kilimajnaro in 2005

In 2016, Martin Boner (Ireland), Chris Temboh Muriuki (Kenya) and I (India), tried to climb the North face of Batian (the highest of the Mt. Kenya group of peaks) by its standard route and together we almost succeeded in our first alpine- big wall- rock climbing effort. In this trip I learnt a few valuable lessons about Mt. Kenya and they are as follows: 

1. At 5000 + mts it is high and technical enough to give one a big mountain experience. 
2. Since the distance from the road head to the mountain is fairly short, it is equally easy to attract AMS. 
3. Mt Kenya is colder than you think. 

The very next year, 2017, I cycled across the Sahara by its Atlantic route to discover that the desert and the countries plotted on it, belonged to a very different Africa than what this continent as an unit, is generally and almost stereotypically seen as. However, I was waiting for another opportunity to get back to Mt Kenya and in 2019, Dr. Jeremy Windsor, an accomplished climber, a high altitude physiology expert and a very good friend, invited me to join his team to Mt. Kenya. While my heart was elated at the possibility, I had to drop out of the team at the last moment as I could not possibly pay for the travel and expedition logistics at that time.

My luck changed in early 2020, when Kaivalya Verma, a very well known and dedicated rock climber of India, introduced me to Bhushan Poshe, CEO of Allied Safety Equipments Pvt. Ltd and an informal meeting took place at my friend Dinesh Korday’s flat in Mumbai in presence of Rohit Bhat, one of the bright ‘Young Turk s’ of the Western Ghats. Bhushan gracefully extended a much needed helping hand and suddenly my long cherished dream to get back to Mt. Kenya and complete the climb, turned into a reality. 

The Mountain & a bit of History 

Nelion 5188m and the Austrian Hut

My fascination for Mt. Kenya and its big walls originated from reading Eric Shipton and H.W. Tilman’s adventures in Africa. Recalling the first ever traverse of Nelion and Batian, Eric Shipton wrote in the Alpine Journal (Vol.43, 1931), “Taking pack-ponies and a few natives, H. W. Tilman and I left Nanyuki towards the end of July 1930. The journey to our top camp was uneventful save for a meeting with rhino and elephant… The traverse of the Peaks of Mount Kenya was a project which had been occupying my mind for nearly two years perhaps even before Wyn Harris and I had succeeded in making the ascent of the Twin Peaks in January 1929. The first ascent of the highest peak Batian had been made by Sir Halford Mackinder with the late Cesar Oilier and Joseph Brocherel, who climbed the S.E face of Nelion as far as the head of the S. ridge, and, failing to reach the summit of Nelion, traversed to the Diamond Glacier reaching the summit of Batian thereby. Our route was also up the S.E. face of Nelion but we traversed the latter and crossed over to Batian.” In February 2020, we wanted to repeat this classic route.

Being someone who spends most of his mountain exploration around either Nanda Devi or Kangchenjunga and has been brought on a staple diet of classic exploratory journeys by this duo; it was only natural that I would want to visit the very mountain that forged their legendary partnership. My deep interest for Mt.Kenya reached sort of a culmination, when my friend and an extremely strong alpinist Susan Jensen sent me a copy of Felice Benuzzi’s classic ‘No Picnic on Mount Kenya’. The true story of revolt and adventure, by a band of escaped Prisoners of War, epitomized the philosophy of adventure for me and I was ready to go. 

J.W. Howard had made a fine elucidation of the Mt Kenya group of peaks in Alpine Journal (Vol. 60). In Howard’s words, “The pinnacles of Mount Kenya, standing in splendid isolation and grandeur on their pedestal of moorland and forest, must be one of the most magnificent sights in the world, especially when seen in the clear early morning light from the slopes of the Aberdares looking across the Naro Moru plain. The height of the plain is about 6,ooo ft. and of the peaks about 17,000 ft., so that the eye is led upwards in huge sweeps first to the undulating forest, then on to the steeper bare moorland, and finally to the 2,ooo ft. of cliffs which are Batian ( I7,058 ft.) and Nelion (17,022 ft.). The mountain is not only a thing of beauty; it also provides some of the best rock and ice climbing in Africa.” 

Nelion and Batian from Shipton's Camp

Recapitulating the early ascents of the two main peaks of Mt. Kenya, Batian and Nelion, Arthur Firmin wrote (Alpine Journal Vol. 55), “Kenya was first climbed in 1899 by Sir Halford Mackinder and two guides. They climbed from the S.E. side of the mountain and made a direct attack on the highest peak, Batian (17,046 ft.), by traversing the Diamond Glacier which hangs between the twin peaks Nelion and Batian. This route ·has never been climbed since as the Diamond Glacier has shrunk, as have all the glaciers on Kenya, and the traverse would be extremely hazardous today, if not impossible. Nearly thirty years elapsed before the mountain was climbed again. In January, 1929, E. E. Shipton and P. Wyn Harris reached the top of Batian from the S.E. side but this time via Nelion (17,000 ft.). This has since become the normal route to Batian, it being somewhat easier than any other tried route on the mountain, altho1.1:gh the time factor often prevents parties which have reached Nelion from crossing the Gate of the Mists to climb Batian as well. A third route was pioneered on the mountain in July, 1930, when H. W. Tilman and E. E. Shipton made a first traverse of the mountain and its peaks by climbing the W. ridge and descending by the S.E. route. The West Ridge is probably the most difficult and most impressive route on the mountain. It has not been climbed since, but it is hoped other attempts will be made.

After reading about all the pioneers, I felt like going to Mt. Kenya would be like doing an ideal pilgrimage for a student of alpinism like me and now with the support of Allied it was tangible. 

Our Climb of 2020
Brief Timeline and Summary

Team: Chris Temboh Muriuki, John Gule and Anindya Mukherjee

Approach: South and South-East Face of Peak Nelion. Original plan was to climb Nelion first and then traverse the Gate of Mist to Batian. Traverse was aborted due to high wind. All three reached the summit of Nelion on 8th February, 2020.

Itinerary: 

3rd February: Drive from Nairobi via Nanyuki and Sirimon and hiked to old Moses Camp.

4th February: Old Moses to Liki North Camp.

5th February: Liki North to Shipton's Camp.

6th February: Shipton's Camp to Austrian Hut.

7th February: Acclimatization day, climbed Point Lenana.

8th February: Climbed SE Face, standard route of Nelion, Slept in Howell's Hut at the summit.

9th February: Aborted traverse to Batian due to high wind, down to Austrian Hut and walked to Shipton's Camp.

10th February: Shipton's Camp to Nanyuki.

11th – 13th February: Cycled back to Nairobi.

The Approach

Chris, John and myself, approached the mountain by the Sirimon route. From Shipton’s Camp (4320m) we went through the Simba Col and Tooth Col trail and spent two nights in the Austrian Hut (4700m). It is from the Austrian Hut, we hiked to the summit of Point Lenana (4985m) as part of our acclimatization programme. It is a curious statistics that approximately, 15000 summits are made every year on Lenana. Whereas, only 200 people climb Nelion and 50, Batian; which is a proof enough how technically testing both these peaks are to succeed on them. 

Chris and Raja at the Sirimon Gate

Chris's van loaded with our gear and Chris's bike that I was going to ride back to Nairobi

View towards Nanyuki from the Old Moses Camp

The Austrian Hut and Nelion

Nelion as seen from Point Lenana. Lewis glacier below. 

The Climb 

On 8 February, we reached the foot of the face after an hour’s hike on scree and moraine from Austrian Hut and passed the soon-to-be-shrunk Lewis glacier. We climbed 18 pitches to reach the top of Nelion within a span of nine hours. 

and of scree and beginning of the climb

After an entire day of climbing, once we reached the summit, everything looked well as the weather too was good which gave us the hope to be able to complete the traverse the next day. Regrettably, weather started deteriorating due to the sudden invasion of strong wind that night; something that can only be compared to a jet stream wind. We expected the wind to die down by midnight but that never happened. We spent the night inside Howell’s Hut which is situated at the top of Mt Nelion. All three of us had to spend two days (8th & 9th Feb, 2020) on six litres of water-supply as there was no trace of ice on the top to be melted. As a result of it, we got dehydrated. Since the wind hardly showed any chance to recede into distance, we decided to descend back. 

John and Chris on top of Nelion

Summit of Nelion. Batian seen in the backdrop.

The Howell's Hut :) 

Overall, the climbing grade was not too overwhelming for us. There were two traverses to be done and the crux of the climbing ( the de graaf’s) is difficult as you are climbing on such a huge face of ~1500ft carrying 10-15kg on an altitude nearing 5000m. It surely would have felt easier nearby sea level. Hence, I feel it is not just another big-wall climbing, rather should be considered an ‘Alpine Big Wall’ climbing. The fun fact is the abseil route on the South East face is bolted. Since this is the standard and pretty well-traversed route, if one can locate these bolts, there is no need to sacrifice one's own gear. So, what took us 18 pitches to climb, brought us down in just 13 abseils. We reached at Austian Hut around 2pm followed by a lunch over there; we finally reached Shipton's Camp in the evening.

The very next morning, we walked all the way up to the Sirimon gate and then drove to Nanyuki. I borrowed Chris’s bicycle and pedaled back to Nairobi over the next three days.

I am grateful to Allied Safety Equipments Pvt. Ltd for their support of this adventure climbing trip. Without their financial aid and technical gear support this project of mine would have remained in my dreams still. 

friends forever. Raja, John, Chris (from left to right)

and I start pedalling towards Nairobi