SATOPANTH GLACIER EXPEDITION, 1980

Sponsored by The Himalayan Club

SHASHANK KULKARNI and SOUMITRA WADALKAR

WITH OUR experience of previous Himalayan expeditions organized by The Students' Gymkhana, I.I.T., Bombay, the five of us Shashank Kulkarni, Vasudev Gharpure, Vasant Limaye, Chandrashekhar Tambat and Soumitra Wadalkar, were eager to return to the Himalaya in the summer of 1980. Now that all of us had graduated from I.I.T. we had to organize the expedition on our own and our immediate problem was to get our expedition sponsored. When we submitted the proposal of our expedition to the Himalayan Club, we had the privilege of being the first expedition sponsored by them.

After going through a few issues of the Himalayan Journal and talking to some experienced mountaineers, we decided to attempt 'Parvati Parvat' (20,587 ft) a virgin peak on the south wall of Sato- panth glacier and about 5 km WSW. of Nilkanth in the Badrinath region of the Garhwal Himalaya. The ridge starting from the West col of Nilkanth ends into a high point 20,100 ft. We called this point 'Ekdant' (which literally means one tooth and is another name for Lord Ganesh. This high point is situated between Nilkanth . [Shiva] and Parvati, hence the name). On the West side of Ekdant there is a sudden drop to a snow field which leads to Parvati Parvat From Satopanth glacier Ekdant looks very impressive while Parvati Parvat is not even seen. Hence all the earlier expeditions had mistaken Ekdant to be Parvati Parvat.

There have been three known attempts on Ekdant. New Zealand Garhwal expedition led by H. E. Riddiford attempted it in 1951.¹ They established a base camp at 13,500 ft on Satopanth glacier and reached the col, climbing almost 4500 ft in a day. Next day they attempted Ekdant but returned due to bad snow conditions on the ridge. A day later they made another attempt. They walked oil the ridge for a while but soon a part of the cornice gave way close to where they were walking and so they returned. Later it was attempted by a Mayo College team led by S. S. N. Ganju in 1967. But they too were unsuccessful. Ganju returned to Ekdant in 1973 with a team from St. Stephen's College.² They had a spell of bad weather and had to return after reaching the col.

Limaye and Wadalkar left Bombay on 8 May 1980 as an advanced party. They arranged for the permits and visited Hemkund. Rest of the party left Bombay on 20 May with Dr Vinay Kulkarni whom we had included as a doctor member. The entire party was together at Badrinath on the 24th. Next morning we packed our things, and transported them to Mana in a bus. The total luggage, about 700 kg was loaded on 9 mules and all of us left Mana at about 1 p.m. We had hardly gone about a third of the way where we had to cross a snow bridge to go on the true right bank of Alaknanda and the muleteer told us that the mules couldn't cross it. Hence we proceeded on the true left bank of Alaknanda upto Jamnakuni, the meeting point of Satopanth and Bhagirath Kharak glaciers.

 

Even though a path existed on the true right bank of the river right from Mana, we had landed on the wrong side of the river and next day we had to work hard to cross the river and set the matter right. The river was about 75 ft broad, at least waist deep, very swift and extremely cold. Crossing it on foot would have been an extreme measure. So we found a place where huge boulders were strewn in the river bed with not more than a distance of about 6 ft between the successive boulders. Two members crossed from boulder to boulder on a stout tree branch about 10 ft long. Once they were on the other side, it was a simple matter to string a rope across the river and transfer the load. In the evening we were joined by our high-altitude porters, Narayan Singh, Ajab Singh and Sher Singh from village Paing near Rini.

On 28th we established our base camp at 13,500 ft in a big flat basin between Satopanth glacier and a huge wall of the lower slopes of Nilkanth. There were small streams flowing in the basin and the juniper bushes that grew plentifully around that place provided firewood for cooking. A massive boulder in the middle provided good protection from wind and rain to our kitchen. After repacking our loads at the B.C. we set out to recce Camp I (C1) next day. We walked along the glacier for about half a kilometre and then turned southwards and climbed the south wall of the glacier. It was a steep mow slope that, flattened after climbing about 2000 ft. There was a very good camp site at the beginning of this flat area. Platforms for tents were already dug on a hump that was clear of snow and a stream flowing nearby provided constant water at 15,500 ft.

On the 31 st Vasant Limaye, Wadalkar and Narayan occupied C1 while the rest of us ferried load to C1. This way the men in front could recce C2 while CI was being stocked. From CI, to reach the West col of Nilkanth, the route cuts across a snow basin. There were a lot of crevasses in the basin but all of them were narrow enough to jump across. From the end of basin the route was very steep. After climbing up for about 1000 ft we had to traverse the flanks of Nilkanth. Two funnels coming down from Nilkanth had to be crossed on the traverse which brought one to the base of a wall leading to the col. On the 1 June they left C1 at about 6.15 a.m. They crossed the basin in about 45 minutes and started climbing. Their progress was very slow since the snow was very soft. They managed to reach upto the first funnel hut did not go across since it was already late and Nilkanth had started sending a stream of ice-pebbles down the funnel. They returned to C1 after fixing 400 ft of rope. Next day Vinay, Shashank and Narayan reached the first funnel by 7 a.m. using the rope fixed by the earlier party. They found that even at that time ice-pebbles were coming down. There used to be a big hissing sound followed by the stream of pebbles. Narayan belayed by Shashank took almost an hour to cross the 100 ft of the funnel while Vinay was freezing in the cold. After the first funnel, they still kept close to the massifs of Nilkanth for a while. Totally about 500 ft of rope was fixed on the route. After traversing the flanks of Nilkanth, there was almost 1000 to 1500 ft of steep climb to the col.

So far our progress on the mountain was very satisfactory. On 3rd Limaye, Wadalkar, Tambat and the HAPs left C1 to set up a camp on the col. The sky was cloudy but they hoped it would clear up. But by the time they had gone across the basin it started snowing and they returned to the camp after dumping the load near a rock. It snowed all morning. We spent the day relaxing and playing cards. Next morning dawned no better and another precious day was lost. Luckily, the 5^th morning was clear and all of us ferried load to the col. There was a rocky spur coming down the ridge on to the col. We prepared a rock platform there for one tent. Wadalkar, Limaye and Narayan stayed at C2 and rest of the party returned to C1.

Three of us at C2 were thrilled that we had the opportunity to explore the virgin ridge. I almost spent a sleepless night though I don't know whether it was due to excitement or the height. We left the camp early in the morning after a cup of coffee. We started towards the snow hump about 1000 ft above us on the ridge over loose Hat rocks. The way upto the hump was on the south side of the ridge and was in the shadow. It was very cold and we soon started shivering. In a short while Limaye returned to the camp since he was not feeling good. Towards the southeast we identified Nanda Devi, Duna- giri and Trisul. The snow we were walking on was now very soft and there was a huge crevasse at the bottom of the slope. When we were almost on top of the hump we skirted it within 5 ft of its absolute top, and stepped on the ridge leading to Ekdant. The ridge was barely six feet wide with cornice on the north side and rocks ending in a steep slope on the south. We had to force our way between the cornice and the rocks within about 2 ft from the north side. We were totally disillusioned to see the ridge since we were hoping for more gentle slopes on the south side. Before I could discuss the prospects of our walking on such a treacherous path, Narayan had already gone ahead and when I caught up with him, he assured me that the cornice was hard. Now we could see our C1 on the north over the lip of the cornice. Snow was now hard and we could walk confidently. But very soon the cornice ended and the ridge was now razor sharp. We could see the north side dropping 2500 ft almost vertically and on the south side rocks lined the edge leaving the ridge 2 to 3 ft wide and then dropped 2000 ft to the crevassed field below. We had in put our feet cross-wise one after the other since there was hardly 5 to 6 inches wide place where we could place our feet. Narayan was walking confidently and however hard I tried, I couldn't put even part of his confidence in my uncertain steps which tended to take mc all the way down on either side. My back began to ache, as I was unintentionally bending to keep my balance. While trying to main- lain my precarious balance and walk, I did not notice that the clouds that had been in the valley on our north, had moved up and had hidden Ekdant. In front of us there were three small humps on the ridge followed by a depression and then began the final slope of Ekdant. We decided to return because getting caught on the ridge in bad weather was the last thing we wanted to happen.

As we embarked on our return, we faced a new problem. By now tin snow had become soft and as we stepped forward the entire snow below our step slid either 2000 ft on one side or 2500 ft on the other. It happened on three successive steps and I was horribly shaken up Hence we decided to straddle the ridge. As I sat down, I thought I would slide down with the snow but with some guts managed to work my way down. We moved one at a time belaying the other person. Only after this difficult part of the ridge had passed, I could feel myself again. Within half an hour of reaching the camp it started snowing and snowed for the rest of the day. In the afternoon, while it was snowing outside we relaxed in the tent and discussed the chances of our reaching the summit of Parvati Parvat. Considering our experience on the ridge in the morning, we thought it would be an achievement if we could reach even Ekdant. Parvati was over 2600 ft from C2 and more than 5 km long. It was not possible to cover this distance in a day and return to C2, given the conditions on the ridge. Besides, during the last week the weather used to invariably pack up after 12 o'clock. Hence we should be back in the camp by noon after the attempt. It was impossible. Neither was it possible to set up a C3 beyond Ekdant, since ferrying load on the ridge was beyond our capacity. Next day was again wasted since it snowed all day.

On 8th when we woke up it was 5.15 a.m. The alarm clock had stopped ticking at 10 p.m. the previous night. It was clear and Narayan and myself left the camp by 6.15 a.m. Limaye stayed back in the camp considering that two people moving on the ridge would be faster than three. We were feeling very fit today and reached the first hump on the ridge within an hour and pushed on without stopping at all. We could see a few black clouds in the valley on the south. The sight simply made us increase our pace. We could also see three tiny figures at the base of the first funnel moving up from C1 to C2. Both of us kept on walking and after we crossed three more humps on the ridge we found ourselves at the bottom of the final slope leading to the summit of Ekdant. Here the snow was soft and we went in ankle to knee deep. On our left side the slope of Ekdant ended in a bergschrund where the snow field began. The clouds were now passing over Ekdant but we were not bothered since we had almost made it. At 9.30 a.m. we found ourselves on top of Ekdant. We ate some sweets, had some juice and buried the empty tin on the peak. The further part of the ridge on our west was by now in clouds and we could not get a proper view of a possible route to Parvati Parvat. We could barely see the summit of Parvati through the clouds. The ridge suddenly dropped low on our west. Nilkanth looked magnificent and the thought that we were the first people to view Nilkanth from this angle filled me with excitement.

We started back within fifteen minutes since the clouds had already started threatening us. We again straddled the ridge, but this time-we were moving together. On the col we met Limaye. After a while Ajab arrived from C1, followed by Tambat and Shashank. In a short while it started snowing and we considered ourselves lucky to be back in the camp just in time.

Since it was not possible to reach Parvati from this side we decided to return. Next day we wound up C2 and left for C1 by about 10.30 a.m. We had gone for about an hour and it started snowing. But we continued till we reached the first funnel where we were forced to stop. A huge stream of snow was flowing down the funnel and it was impossible to cross it while it was snowing. Soon we were wet and Marled feeling cold. We had not eaten much before leaving C2, since we were hoping to reach C1 soon, and now we were feeling hungry. We were stuck between C1 and C2 and all we could do was just wait. Luckily it stopped snowing soon. Crossing the funnel was laborious with loaded rucksacks on the back since there was no soft snow left mid we had to cut fresh steps in the hard snow as the old steps were washed away by the snowfall. After crossing the funnel we thought the ordeal was over but walking down the lower slopes was also tiring since we were going waist deep in the soft snow. We could not slide down the slope either, since the slope was too steep and we had the sack on our back. It was not before 2 o'clock that we reached the C1.

On 10th C1 was packed up and we reached Joshimath on the 13th alter a long wait at Badrinath for the bus. During the expedition we had developed such cordial relationship with our porters Narayan Ajab, and Sher Singh that they invited us to their village. We spent a day in their village Paing near Rini, enjoyed their hospitality, drank plenty of chang and returned to Bombay on 20 June.

 

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