Sundardhunga Khal: The Solution to a Long-Standing Problem
Text and Photos: Anindya Mukherjee ‘Raja’
Introduction
The Sundardhunga Khal is 5520m (18100ft) high. It is the lowest point of the ridge connecting Maiktoli (6803m, 22320ft) and Panwali Dwar (6663m, 21860ft) and the highest point between the valleys of South Rishi glacier to its North and the Burh glacier to its South. Starting from 1932, exploratory climbers have been trying to climb the Sundardhunga Khal from the south in order to get a direct access to the inner sanctuary of Nanda Devi. Once the south face of Sundardhunga Khal is climbed, one of last exploratory problems of the Indian Himalaya will be solved.
History
During May 1932, Hugh Ruttledge, Émile Rey (one of the greatest alpine guides of his generation) and six Sherpas from Darjeeling were the pioneers looking into the problem of climbing Sundardhunga Khal from the Burh glacier side, i.e. the Maiktoli valley. After taking a closer look at the face Ruttledge wrote ,
“We were brought up all-standing by a sight which almost took our remaining breath away. Six thousand feet of the steepest rock and ice. Near the top of the wall, for about a mile and a half, runs a terrace of ice some 200 ft. thick. Under the pull of gravity large masses constantly break off from this terrace and thunder down to the valley below, polishing in their fall the successive bands of limestone of which the face is composed. Even supposing the precipice to be climbable, an intelligent mountaineer may be acquitted on a charge of lack of enterprise if he declines to spend at least three days and two nights under fire from this artillery.”
On 17-18 September, 1934, soon after the historical breakthrough of successfully traversing the Rishi gorge and thus opening a passage to the inner sanctuary for the first time; Eric Shipton, Bill Tilman, Pasang Sherpa, Kusang Sherpa and Ang Tharkay started the climb to Ruttledge's col (Sundardhunga Khal) to look down the 6,000 feet (1,800 m) precipice and icefall to the Sunderdhunga (Burh) Glacier. It took them two days to discover a route ‘down’ the precipice and Ang Tharkay was the person who found the way that was at last successful. This was the first and only complete crossing of Sundardhunga Khal and the first ‘descent’ . But the problem of the ascent of south face of Sundardhunga Khal remained altered.
In the 1980s at least two attempts were made by climbers from West Bengal to solve this puzzle without much progress. In 2015, George W Rodway, Phurtenji (Lakpa) Sherpa and I made our first attempt at this historical problem. We went in early June and found the descent line of 1934 (Shipton-Tilman) ‘unreasonable’ due to hanging seracs. We then tried to find out a possible alternative route (avoiding the icefalls entirely) but had to abort from around 4600m due to unconsolidated and totally untrustworthy new snow filling the labyrinth of interlinked gullies and runnels that we were climbing on. We knew that seasonal temperatures dictate that anything below 6000 m in the Uttarakhand Himalaya will be too warm for safe or comfortable snow conditions and resolved to return one day for a late autumn attempt (October-November) in anticipation of firmer snow and more stable weather.
( Read about 2015 attempt here)
The 2022 Climb
The 2022 climb happened rather accidentally. Lakpa and I were scheduled to go to guide on Ramjak peak in Himachal Pradesh. Without any prior notice, just one day ahead of our departure to Manali, all treks and climbs above 15000ft was banned in Lahaul and Spiti district by the local authorities in the ‘interest of safety’! How to stop headache immediately? Why cut the head off of course! Such is the trend among the babus of Indian bureaucracy these days. Anyway, with our work vanishing at the whim of a babu, instead of sitting home and sulking, we decided to have a go at our old, unsolved problem- the ascent of Sundardhunga Khal from the South.
First an overnight train from Kolkata, then two and a half days’ drive from Delhi brought us to the road head Jaikuni (2240m) on 26th September. Over the next 3 days we hiked, stopping at Jatoli (2380m) and Kathaliya (3300m), to reach the base of the climb and settled in an empty shepherd hut which became our base camp (3860m). We started working on the wall from 1st October and by 3rd October afternoon; we had established our Camp I (4160m) and also identified a spot for Camp II (4580m). We understood the importance of being fast and light in this climb as we expected the weather window to last only couple of more days in this area.
On 4th October, we started very early from Camp I. The terrain between Camp I and Camp II could be described as a Moroccan mosaic of slippery, greenish yellow vertical grass and blackish brown rock cliffs. While the rock bands gave us comfort and confidence, it was the grass sections that rattled our nerves without fail. However, within 2 hours of uphill climb, we reached our pre-identified Camp II site. It was right below the ‘last’ (‘first’ for us as the ascending party) ice-fall, yet quite safe from the serac avalanches roaring down through a gully 20 ft away from our tent. Interestingly, we found the description given by Tilman of this section of the climb striking similar to this day. We were awestruck at the ‘great ice terrace’ looming large above the ice-fall. I guess it was more fear than respect. This is the same intimidation of becoming the target of a broken serac that made us look for an alternative route back in 2015. Yet this time we felt there was a strong willingness to confront the fear. Tilman wrote ,
“Ahead of us the glacier swept down with a last ice-fall, the steepest of all. On the right were some easy rocks, though separated from us by a 40-foot ice-wall and a gully, the target of debris from the great ice terrace thousands of feet above.”
On 4th October, after taking a half hour’s break at Camp II, Lakpa and I started climbing expeditiously. We did not want to sit around the whole day and move up the next day. With great haste we traversed the avalanche swept gully and started climbing up. The terrain was now mixed. Snow and ice slopes littered with scary avalanche debris were frequently interrupted by rock bands. These rock bands offered great chunky holds and we never felt the need for putting any protection. It took us almost 2 hours to free climb the last of the rock bands. We now reached the steep ice-fall Tilman mentioned. Seracs looked down on the two of us with a deathly gaze. We found a collapsed serac as a passage to a relatively gentle and safe slope of Sundardhunga Khal’s glacier. This collapsed (actually still very much in the process of collapsing) serac turned out to be the crux of the whole climb. This must be the 40 ft ice wall Tilman mentioned, so we thought.
As soon as the '40ft ice wall' was below us, a little rock ramp at around 5000m gave us an opportunity to rest without fear of any life-ending hazard hanging over our heads. Relieved we sat there for a few minutes. Ahead of us, we could see, the glacier was vertical no more and without any treacherous, hideous complications. We estimated, from where we were it would take us an hour and a half to reach the top of the Sundardhunga Khal. But it was already mid-day and we have been climbing from our camp-1 at 4160m (gaining nearly 900m that day). Therefore we decided to head back down to Camp 2 at 4680m and settle for the night there. We were in agreement of coming back up and finishing the job early next morning. And that is exactly what we did.
But that night (4th October) and the next day (5th) two consecutive avalanches bombarded right on our climbing line. Interestingly, the source of those avalanches was ‘the great ice terrace’ dislodging seracs from thousands of feet above the ice-fall we just climbed.
On the 6th morning, we decided not to push our luck on this Russian roulette anymore and packed our bags and headed down the wall to the valley. We were extremely satisfied as we had just successfully solved the long standing problem of climbing the Sundardhunga Khal from the south. We have been lucky in not getting swept off by a serac avalanche so far and were not particularly in the mood of testing our lucks further. By mid-morning of the 6th, a cloud cap on Panwali Dwar and the sudden arrival of the cirrus helped us re-affirm our decision to abort the rest of the 'walk' to the Khal.
The climbing part was over. Lakpa and I had just done it in a fast, light and completely unsupported style. We did not desire anything anymore. At that moment, we were two happy climbers and wanted to remain that way. We both know that we will go back one day and finish the job.
Co-ordinates and altitudes of camps en-route Sundardhunga Khal from the South
• Jaikuni- 2240m- village guest house- 30°06'20.9''N, 79°55'40.7''E
• Jatoli- 2380m- village guest house- 30°08'33.2''N, 79°55'24.4''E
• Kathaliya- 3300m- KMVN hut- 30°13'09.5''N, 79°55'02.7''E
• BC-3860m- Shepherds’ hut- 30°15'25.9''N, 79°55'13.1''E
• Camp I-4160m- 30°16'26.9''N, 79°55'45.2''E
• Camp II- 4580m- 30°16'39.1''N, 79°55'29.1''E
• Crux/High Point- 5000m - 30°16'50.3''N, 79°55'11.1''E
• Sundardhunga Khal-5520m- 30°17'10.7''N, 79°54'45.8''E
Team
Phurtenji Sherpa ‘Lakpa’ and Anindya Mukherjee ‘Raja’
Duration
27th September, 2022 to 8th October, 2022
Acknowledgement
We are grateful to The Himalayan Club Kolkata section team for sharing their food and shelter with us during our approach and outward marches. We are thankful to Aftab Kaushik, Siddharth Sirohi, Karan Singh, Shantanu Sood for their camaraderie and support. We want to thank Prof Nilanjan Patra for sharing his insight on the weather pattern during our trip and also thank Nilay Chakrabarty, the Hony local secretary of THC, Kolkata section for taking pro-active measures of organizing a rescue team if situation demanded.
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