Trek and Climb with RAJA

  TREK AROUND THE MAYEL LYANG- NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 2021 THE HIDDEN LAND OF MYTHICAL PARADISE OF THE LEPCHA PEOPLE IN NORTH SIKKIM   Trip Highlight:   Culture, Jungle trek, Monasteries, Himalayan Lake, Off the Beaten Path  Approaching the Kishong Lake MAYEL LYANG: IT’S MEANING AND WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT ‘Mayel Lyang’ is a Lepcha term that literally means “mythical paradise” or “hidden paradise”. It is also referred to as ‘Ancient Sikkim’ by the Lepcha. They believe their immortal ancestors still live in the snows of Kangchenjunga, hidden. Here Ma (‘Maa)’ means hidden, ‘yel’ means eternal and ‘kyong’/Lyang means a village in Lepcha; therefore, ‘Maayel Kyong’ literally means a ‘hidden and eternal Lepcha Village’. Lepchas believe that seven immortal Lepcha couples live in Mayel Lyang. It is a paradise on earth. It is believed by the Lepchas that ‘Maayel Kyong’ is situated at the head of Dzongu. The Lepcha offer their prayers, ovations and ...

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...

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 vi...