Trek and Climb with RAJA

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 ...

 Surrounded by Ladakh's towering peaks and an alien desolation of a landscape, a band of three had just joined forces. With an unknown valley ahead and an unscaled mountain in sight, this curious company of two ladakhis and one bengali (2L1B) -- a musician, an aspiring mountain filmmaker and a seasoned climber-- were setting a plan afoot. The goal was to push a blitz attempt on an unnamed 6000m summit, true to the essence of an alpine style climb. Treading lightly on the terrain, with the bare minimum of necessities, expenses and impact on the surroundings, the project had had to be an exercise in precise and economic execution of the alpine craft. The team went strong with the odds in their favour upto the final camp, the top within the reach of but a few more hours' worth of toil. It was just then that the skies were besieged by a fierce, battering snow storm. The onslaught of wind and snow seemed to get harsher by the hour, as frustration from the jeopardized ascent turned t...

View from our ABC in 2016. Unnamed and unclimbed 5000m peaks in the background.  Background In October-November 2014 [i] , led by Alan Tees, the past President of Mountaineering Ireland, our party was the first team to complete the traverse of the Zumthul Phuk Chu gorge as envisioned by John Claude White in 1891. In the end, the 2014 expedition came back home with first ascents of Brother Tees Col (5250m) and One Hand Peak (5100m). The real discovery of the 2014 expedition was however, the massive potential of climbing hitherto unclimbed peaks and passes in a virtually unknown territory hidden in close quarters of the mighty Kangchenjunga. A brief report of the 2014 expedition can be found here:  Zumthul Phuk Expedition 2014   Expedition Summary 2016 In October-November 2016, led by Jack Bergin, a team of eight climbers and two support members entered Zumthul Phuk glacier once again. They established their Base Camp in the same place as in 2014 and...

The Curious Case of De Nga View from the ridge above Longdo Nye (Panch Pokhri) lakes Explorations on the watershed between Lachen chu and Ringi chu, North Sikkim Text: Anindya Mukherjee Photos: Aloke Kumar Das It was the third week of November,2015 and Kolkata was showing no signs of cooling down. Autumn was clearly gone and winter was still hesitating to enter into our space. Being gangetic, we understand this. Winter and Bay of Bengal are eternally engaged in a ‘cold’ war. Just like us Bengalis, they do not agree with each other- ever. But I could see and sense from experience that the weather pattern in the eastern part of the Himalaya was moving towards a clearer, stable state. News of new snow on the ridges of Singalila was bringing promises. I was getting restless. Long time, no mountain! And suddenly a plan was in the air.   As soon as the plan did surface, I met Aloke Das, my companion on Nanda Devi East   in 2013 [1] . I knew, Aloke, a senior mounta...

It took me more than a year to realize that I have not posted anything in my blog since Jan 2, 2016! Really? No posts, no updates, no reports whatsoever. It was such an active year! An year full of climbs, explorations and adventure. Yet, what was I thinking? Facebook of course. I was busy posting almost daily updates on that monstrous social network and getting sucked up in the process. Now, finally I have been able to ( at least I would like to think that I have) distance myself from Facebook a bit. It is now time for me to write down in brief about the things that happened in my life in 2016 ( as if that matters to someone). The first big adventure of 2016 for me was climbing the north face of Batian (Mt Kenya). Together with my good friend Martin Boner we gave big Batian a try. Here is a photo of the North face of Batian from near Shipton's Camp. We followed the standard route. Chris, our Kenyan friend also joined us in the climb at the last moment. Thus it was a party of 3 a...

It gives us immense pleasure to announce that the 3rd Sujal Mukherjee Memorial Lecture will be held in Kolkata on 19th December, 2015. We are pleased to be able to continue our effort on bringing in an academic environment to the widely popular field of Himalayan mountaineering and trekking in Kolkata, West Bengal. We want to encourage our fellow mountain travelers to approach the high Himalaya not only with courage, but also with knowledge and humility.The Sujal Mukherjee Memorial Lecture series is therefore an instrument through which we want to achieve this goal. Dr. George W Rodway during one of his expeditions of Mt. Everest We are indeed honored to have Dr. George W Rodway as our guest speaker for the 3rd Sujal Mukherjee Memorial Lecture. The title of his talk is : " A Little History of Some Big Peaks: The Saga of Medical Science associated with the Struggle for the Heights " George W. Rodway, PhD, b. 3 March 1959, represents a combination of scientifi...