EXPLORATION AND CLIMBS IN NORTHEAST SIKKIM

DOUG SCOTT

SIKKIM HAS ONE main feature and that is the Tista river and all its tributaries. The whole of Sikkim is contained within the Tista basin and on the rim of this basin are an almost continuous line of mountains, including on the western edge, the world's third highest, Kangchenjunga. There are also two groups of mountains within the confines of the basin and away from Sikkim's border with Tibet. The highest of these is Kangchengyao and the most shapely Chombu and Dongkya Ri.

The river runs south and eventually drains into the Bay of Bengal from where the monsoon blows in and convection weather drifts up the valley all year round making this one of the wettest places on earth. Not surprisingly all the steep valley sides are heavily forested, except in the north where the tree gives way to brown open scrubland reminiscent of Tibet.

Dr. Alexander Kellas, the Aberdonian chemist, is the climber most associated with Sikkim. He made six expeditions to Sikkim from 1907 to 1920. He did a phenomenal amount of climbing and yet very little is known about him because he was of a retiring nature and wrote so little of his remarkable, if not unique, achievements. Unique in that he generally climbed without European companions, but was accompanied by an ever loyal group of local porters who he trained in the basic alpine skills. He was remarkable in that during one season in 1910 he made ten first ascents above 6000 m (20,000 ft), including Sentinel Peak (6490 m), Pauhunri (7125 m) and Chomoyummo (6829 m). His energy must have been phenomenal as was his tenacity. The year before in 1909 he twice attempted to climb Pauhunri, getting within 60 m (200 ft) from the top. The summit was obviously important for him to come all the way back the following year to eventually reach it.

Photos 6 to 9

During the inter-war years there was not as much activity in the north of Sikkim, as around Kangchenjunga. However, two climbs were made by returning Everesters. In 1936 Shipton, with Warren, Kempson and Wigram climbed Gurudongmar. After the Everest expedition of 1938 Tilman was as he put it 'one of the rats deserting the sinking ship" that broke away to climb or survey mountains in Sikkim. After crossing the Naku la to the west of Chomoyummo he came off the Tibetan plateau down into Sikkim to eventually climb what he called Lachsi but which is now called Chumangkang (6212 m) on the Swiss map. This is another of the many fine peaks that stand proud and south of the main Himalayan divide in the north of Sikkim.

During the second world war British climbers took leave up in this region. In 1945 Harry Tilly climbed Chomoyummo and Wilfrid Noyce climbed Pauhunri, both second ascents. As a result of the interest in crossing from the Lachen via the Sebu la to the Lachung two Himalayan Club huts were erected, on either side of the Sebu la - one on the Lascha chu and the other at Yunie Samdong. Sadly both huts are now in total ruin.

Trevor Braham in 1949 made an important discovery and that was a col that linked the high plateau glacier Kang Kyong with the valleys to the west that would lead down to the Lachung valley.

At our request for information and photographs he recalled 'memories of old carefree days, when one was happy enough to explore, and never expected to climb a mountain at the first attempt." No western climber had walked or climbed in the northeast of Sikkim since Trevor Braham was there in the 1950"s.

In 1962 those carefree days came to an end when the Chinese took advantage of Indian neutrality and attacked the undefended northern borders on many fronts. The 'inner line" was drawn and beyond it foreigners could not go. This line extended through the then semi-autonomous principality of Sikkim. Although several Indian military expeditions were allowed to climb in the area, Indian civilians, with one exception, were not. In 1976 Harish Kapadia and Zerksis Boga managed to inveigle their way into this area to spend several weeks tramping over high passes including the Sebu la. By 1996 Indo-Chinese relations were less tense and it seemed that one determined push and the door could be opened into this relatively unclimbed area of the Himalaya.

During 1994/95 we had attempted to gain access to Kangto in Arunachal Pradesh but after 18 months of effort we had been turned down by the Indian Home Ministry. We then turned our attention towards climbing in Sikkim. I began to send copious amounts of paperwork to the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (I.M.F.) where it was efficiently dealt with by the Director, Colonel Badgel, and the previous Vice President and old friend, Colonel Balwant Sandhu. One of the two current Vice Presidents of the I. M.F. Suman Dubey fully endorsed our expedition on behalf of the I.M.F. and maintained the pressure to keep our application moving through the various ministries. Out in Sikkim we engaged the support of the daughter of the late king of Sikkim, Hope Leezum Namgyal, who had recently started a trekking company - Yeti Trax. Hope was able to confirm that the Sikkimese authorities welcomed our intention to climb in the northeast of the state.

The weeks passed and still no confirmation from the I.M.F. The Foundation for Sports and Arts and some fifty food firms and equipment manufacturers, had generously decided to support our expedition and yet our application had become bogged down in the Home Ministry and there it stayed unresolved with only two weeks to go. We had been given five deadlines, all of them had passed with no news. Some of our members dropped out feeling that it would never happen. Others began to worry that all the arrangements that have to be made to be away for two months in the Himalaya would not bear fruit. The omens were not good. Harish Kapadia ran foul of the military authorities and had his expedition cancelled half way through their climbing up the Terong glacier in 1996. This was reminiscent of 1990, the last time I attempted to climb in India. Our British team had its expedition cancelled just as we were about to climb Rimo II in the same region. Andrew Betts British expedition left in 1995 for Hanuman Peak having been given permission by the I.M.F. only to find that local forestry officials would not allow them to reach the roadhead. During the final throes of organising our expedition Jim Lowther telephoned to tell me that the day before he was to fly off for a peak in Kishtwar, and three weeks after he had sent all his baggage ahead, he had been warned by I.M.F. that his peak was not now available to him.

With the present so marred with worry about our uncertain future I contacted the President of I.M.F. Dr. M. S. Gill. He is a very busy man being India's Chief Election Commissioner, and therefore one of India's top civil servants. I put it to him that our main problem was not whether India allows our expedition to go into this hitherto closed area, but why it is that no decision is made until just before intended departure, or even after departure. I explained the frustrations to each and every member, their families, their colleagues at work and that the knock-on effect is simply staggering. He took this letter to heart, took time out from his incredibly busy schedule and did the 'needful' moving our application along the Home Ministry corridors and out to a successful conclusion. A week later on 20 September 1996 we departed for Delhi to find that, unknown to us, a last minute hitch and cropped up out in Sikkim. The army were planning massive manoeuvres in our area and the local commander objected to having foreigners in their way. However, he was persuaded otherwise by the new General Secretary of I.M.F., Major General C. S. Nugyal.

During our stay at the I.M.F. complex Colonel Badgel with the prompting of Colonel Sandhu produced letters of introduction to all the relevant departments in Sikkim and to various officers of the Indian army to help smooth our way. I.M.F. put in a lot of hard work on our behalf. They have our eternal thanks for making the trip possible and in the event absolutely trouble free and that in a country which has a teeming population with far more pressing needs than our esoteric pursuit of mountain climbing.

By 23 September the whole team was assembled and ready to take the Rajdhani express train from Delhi to New Jalpaiguri, a 21 1/2 hour journey covering 1500 kilometres of Northern India. Apart from myself from the UK there was Phil Bartlett, Lindsay Griffin, Julian Freeman-Attwood and Skip Novak. From the USA came the Boston climber Mark Bowen and we also had our two support trekkers, Paul Crowther (UK) and Michael Clarke (USA), who were both experienced travellers and climbers. We were fortunate to have as liaison officer and member of the climbing team, Colonel Balwant Sandhu one of India's most experienced and successful climbers, and Suman Dubey who had climbed throughout the Himalaya, to accompany us for the first two weeks of our expedition. The train left exactly as they said it would at 5.00 p.m. and arrived next day promptly at 2.30 p.m. It had been a very comfortable and also fascinating journey hearing from Suman of the present-day political scene in India and from Balwant, widely read and particularly steeped in Indian history, tales from the Raj and a concise account of the development of the Sikh religion. We rattled along through town and country, across irrigation canals and huge rivers. We were met at Jalpaiguri by Hope Leezum Namgyal and her assistant from Yeti Trax, Duguel. We all set about humping loads in the debilitating heat onto awaiting jeeps and sped off up to Gangtok and the Sonam Delek Hotel.

During the next three days we visited various Ministries and Departments to complete the paperwork, pay over additional Sikkim royalties and take on our Sikkimese liaison officer, Lalit Basnet and four base camp staff who would double as high altitude porters if necessary. From Darjeeling came Pasang Namgyal Sherpa and Sangay Sherpa. Also from West Sikkim, Tenzing Norbu known as Lama and from Gangtok, Narwang Zongda who was known as 'Uncle' and of the indigenous Lepcha people. We discovered that all the foodstuffs and kitchen equipment required for base camp and above was all available in Gangtok. It is an interesting town, more pleasant than heavily polluted Kathmandu these days and is a regular mountain town of zig-zag roads sweeping up one above the other, rather like mountain towns of Italy. The retaining terraced walls are a mass of lichen, often bearing marigolds. There are no beggars here and the people seem open, friendly and energetic. It is obviously the place to be as buildings press one on the other with many more being erected and vying with each other for space. We visited monasteries, museums and local craft centres.

With the permits all in order and the food and equipment packed onto jeeps, we thanked Hope for all her hard work and left Gangtok on 27 September driving north to spend the night in an old British bungalow at Lachung (2624 m).

There has been considerable road building in support of the military and to our complete surprise we discovered we could now drive to a base camp site for the principal two mountains we were interested in climbing; Gurudongmar West (6630 m) and Chombu (6362 m). However, in order to acclimatise we decided to walk from Lachung, partly by road, partly by old footpaths whilst the jeep carried our food and equipment. It was wonderfully restful to be out of town in that newly restored wood panelled dak bungalow sat in comfortable armchairs by a roaring log fire as the rain poured down outside.

On 28 September that little bit of suffering began as we sauntered up the river of wet tarmac winding through a forest of deodar. After six hours uphill we arrived at another dak bungalow at Yumthang (3612 m). That evening we took advantage of a local hot spring to wallow in an enclosed tank of superheated mineral water. During the next two days all of us had reached Yume Samgong (4624 m) and base camp out in the open above the forest at the junction of the Sebu and Lachung rivers. The fact that we were here so quickly had much to do with Balwant knowing the military procedures and his impeccable reputation and calm determination.

Base Camp

By 1 October base camp was established. The staff cooked a wide variety of huge meals over their stoves under a blue tarpaulin and the team gathered together in the huge, yellow geodesic 'North Face" tent which was quite a feat of engineering being relatively light, strong and commodious enough for the whole lot of us to sit in on rainy days. It thus became the nerve centre of operations and the social centre for discourse on many topics - mainly science-based as this trip had a preponderance of physicists. Mike Clarke is a retired engineer from Boeing;

Paul Crowther a consultant in acoustics; Phil lectures in physics; Mark consults on medical optics; Lindsay studied laser physics at Oxford University although now brings attention to detail in editing guide books and a large part of High magazine. Before Balwant became an army commander he had originally taken a science degree. Skip, our four times round the world yachtsman, was no mean self-taught scientist when it came to navigation, astronomy, meteorology and other relevant disciplines. Suman, a journalist, had a good concept of numeracy being the Indian representative for Dow Jones and correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. Naturally it was left to me who had little science-based education, who had never switched on a computer and found a calculating machine difficult, to keep the accounts and produce the balance sheet!

The last time any of us had a base camp so near to a road was on the north side of Everest where the Chinese had pushed a road right up to 5300 m. The military road here ran past Yume Samdong, up to Zadong (4886 m) and in the direction of the Dongkya la (5495 m). By mid November the military would have pulled out and the whole of this upper basin of the Lachung valley left deserted for already the yak men were heading downhill for the winter. Occasionally private vehicles would arrive with locals who had military or government connections that allowed them day trips to the hot springs just 2 km up the Sebu chu. One reason we had so little traffic up here was because the road below had been cut off for ten days due to severe rainfall causing rock avalanches. It appeared from our superficial observations that the army had made minimal impact upon the fauna and flora of this region - that could not be said of the road building contractors. All the way from Gangtok we had seen Bengali road gangs hacking into the forest and great swathes of it were fast disappearing into the wood burning stoves to melt tar for the road metal. It is right that expeditions are required to bring fossil fuel for themselves and their porters to cook upon. However, it did seem somewhat ironic that whilst we were sat around a roaring kerosene stove, or gas burner trying to keep warm, down in the valley below the living forest was being destroyed wholesale and every day of the year. Roads in this part of the world need constant maintenance. Julian, a forestry consultant, was particularly saddened at the felling of so many fine trees when communications were in place to use gas burners.

We wandered at will over meadows covered with bright blue gentians. There was a herd of twelve blue sheep (bharal) roaming the valleys and slopes above camp. They are hard to spot and quickly move out, programmed to be wary as they have to be here in snow leopard country. There are also fox, marmot and numerous small rodents that are less timid and turn up in our kitchen, mess tent and our own sleeping tents. The valleys here are wide, the higher we get the more we realise we are practically in Tibet geographically. It is the sort of country where you feel expansive; wide valleys and high brown plateaux and, all around at the limit of growing things, a rim of peaks whichever way we look. The highest is Pauhunri (7125 m), beyond which is the Chumbi valley, the way of the old trade route from Bengal to Lhasa and the way that the Younghusband mission entered Tibetan in 1903. There is a complex ridge system to the south of Pauhunri with many nameless unclimbed peaks with two of them over 7000 metres. To the northeast of base camp is the prominent block of a mountain, Dongkya Ri (6190 m); standing alone and impressive. West of the Dongkya la is Sanglapu (6224 m). The west ridge of this mountain drops steeply to a col and then rises just as steeply to the main summit of Gurudongmar (6715 m). This is the start of our immediate skyline for then there is a series of mountains stretching west including the west summit of Gurudongmar (6630 m), Yulhekhang (6429 m) and the highest peak in this area, Kangchengyao (6889 m). All these mountains have very steep and complex south faces as is usual in the Himalaya. To the southwest of our camp is an unnamed peak at 5745 m which is very complex on its northen slopes, and to the west of that is Chombu (6362 m), the Matterhom or the Shivling - like peak of Sikkim. Beyond that again is Chungukang (5824 m). There are many more nameless high points plotted on the excellent Swiss/Sikkim Himalayan map (1:150000) which we were eventually able to see and photograph.

The Climbing

The achievements of Indian climbers in this area since the war have been unfortunately marred by confusion as to the validity of some of their claims. Those in India that scrutinise Indian climbing have cast doubt, for instance, on the claims made by Sonam Gyatso as to what they climbed in 1961. He claims to have climbed Yulhekhang and Kangchengyao from the north and to have reached the summit of Chombu by an unspecified route - all this has been discredited in India. If this is so then Chombu and Yulhekhang remain unclimbed and the first ascent of Kangchengyao was made in 1982 by an Indian army expedition led by Major Vijay Singh. Incidentally, that man again, Kellas, had assumed he had climbed it in 1912 but later researchers have suggested Kellas and his locals climbed a slightly lower eastern summit.

Forty-four years after Shipton's first ascent of Gurudongmar the mountain was again climbed from the west in 1980 by a team from the Assam Rifles under the leadership of Norbu Sherpa. More recently in 1991 a team of instructors from the Sonam Gyatso Mountaineering Institute at Gangtok did the third ascent of Gurudongmar and the first from the northeast. They reached the summit on 3 October 1991. During the same expedition the first ascent of Sanglaphu (6078 m) was made on 1 October. They climbed up the northwest side from the glacier between Sanglaphu and Gurudongmar.

It would seem from our reading and from talking to Indian j ournal editors that Chombu and the lower summit of Gurudongmar had not yet been ascended and we therefore considered climbing both. It ought to be noted that there is the possibility in our opinion that Shipton climbed only the west summit. Possibly he regarded the west summit as Gurudongmar and the what is now considered to be the highest summit, something else entirely.

Gurudongmar Reconnaissance 3-6 October

After initial walks up to Sebu cho and Dongkya la to get our bearings, we made camp at 5000 m below the lake in the Palo Chutang valley. We had four days and usually in appalling weather to discover for ourselves all the intricacies of the south side of Gurudongmar and, in particular, the south ridge. We wandered across the plateau country to the east and climbed a rocky summit poking up out of steep boulder fields (5575 m).

During this period, Suman sadly had to depart back to Delhi and work.

Reconnaissance of Sebu la and environs 8-11 October

After a stiff walk past several lakes at different levels, we made camp at the highest lake and below the Sebu la at 5150 m. During this period we had one day when it was possible to view all the peaks in the area under a blue sky. Phil and Lindsay went up the Changme Kang (glacier) to the foot of Yulhekhang south ridge and climbed up Pt. 5691 m (Gurung on the Japanese map). They climbed up from the west by a short steep snow slope to a rocky uncairned summit. Mark, Phil and Balwant went to a col on the watershed south of the lake which may well be a better alternative to crossing the Sebu la. It was to the Sebu la that Skip, Julian and myself went and then camped on the other side to reconnoitre the west face of Chombu. We managed to get into a position after scrambling over several ridges to confirm that, as Trevor Braham had suggested, it looked straight forward; however, it came up onto the south ridge of Chombu, which is not straight forward and a long way south of the summit.

We were surprised to find the west side of Sebu la (5352 m) quite difficult. In fact we had to abseil down snowed-up slabby rocks to the snowfield about half a mile wide. It was below the snowfield by a small lake that we made our camp. From there the going seemed easy down the Lasha chu valley to Thanggu by the Tista river.

Climbing Point 5745 m ('Chombu East') 13-16 October

So far since our arrival in Sikkim it had precipitated at least some of every day so it seemed sensible to keep on acclimatising and seeing as much land as we could between storms. We went up to make a main advanced base camp at the lower Sebu cho (4800 m). From there we headed southwest by moraine ridge, boulder field and glacier to a snowy col (5250 m) that would give us access to the Rulakang glacier. Phil and Lindsay had already explored this approach. We descended the Rulakang to make camp at about 5100 m on rock below the foot of the cliffs to the west of Chombu East. From the camp Phil and Lindsay headed off with Julian and Skip following and Mark, Balwant and myself at the tail end. We zigzagged around huge crevasses into an upper basin and headed up steeply (70 degrees) to a col to the north of our summit. We could see that the southeast face and south ridge of Chombu would be very difficult to climb due to the steep snow flutings of the face capped like some Andean peak with huge mushrooms of snow and frozen mist along the ridge.

As we started to climb the north ridge of our peak the ground got more difficult and innocent looking clouds came in hard and had developed into a full-blown storm by the time we were on rock. There was a lot of down climbing and traversing on loose snowed up rock and scree climbing steep gullies of rock and even frozen turf. The wind blew snow into our faces and all the time through swirling mist the sharp edged ridge could be seen dropping down either side for hundreds of feet. Curious to see more, and anxious for a summit we kept our spirits up as we shuffled along a final sharp edged rock arete to a 30 foot breche. This was the crux (V) and especially difficult with crampons scraping through fresh snow onto the vertical rock. Beyond the breche the ridge levelled off and the summit was easily reached.

We retreated the same way and by the time we reached the col we were in a complete whiteout with huge dumps of snow falling. All the slopes were now very avalanche prone and it was with some trepidation and luck that we emerged unscathed back onto the glacier but with all our tracks buried under the fresh snow. We arrived in camp late that evening and the next day waded back over the col down to the Sebu cho camp, well pleased with this little effort.

Of course, our rest day at Sebu cho was brilliant at least in the morning. Skip and myself walked up to an old survey station Pt. 5245 m that gave us splendid views from a new perspective. It helped in understanding the lie of the land and in particular the complex of peaks in the northeast comer of Sikkim and principally around Pauhanri.

Chombu Reconnaissance 19-21 October

Chombu rising magnificently in its isolation caught everyones imagination. We had checked out the south ridge, east and west sides, now we thought the most likely way to climb it would be via the north or northeast ridge. We walked up from the lake via an ablation valley to the north. After scrambling up to a lake we came out onto a wide snowed-up boulder field of a plateau which we crossed in a southwesterly direction to camp above the glacier that comes down from the northeast side of Chombu. From this camp we climbed down steeply to the glacier, walked up to investigate the north and northeast ridges of the mountain. There was so much fresh snow we could not even reach the north ridge which had seemed from a distance to be the most interesting and logical way to climb the mountain. We, therefore, headed across snowfields to the foot of the northeast ridge. Phil and Lindsay got onto the lower slopes but in thigh-deep snow, precariously lying on hard, icy snow beneath, they gave up and, after some debate, we all retreated. The feeling was that unless there were strong enough winds to blow the snow away we could never climb the mountain on this north side. There was no chance that the snow was going to consolidate for the temperatures were now well below freezing in the shade all the time so the snow would always remain dangerous, unconsolidated powder. We retired to base camp with the intention of trying the south ridge of Gurudongmar.

Gurudongmar South 23-25 October

The time had come for Paul and Mike to leave the expedition. Not only had they contributed to our funds but they had also helped in a number of ways to hump gear up to high camps and had, themselves, climbed a number of points in the region. Perhaps their finest effort was to walk all the way up to the Dongkya la and back to base camp the day after our arrival. They had also walked over Pt. 5526 m below the Sanglaphu and had carried loads for us up to the Chombu camp. Mark, decided to go out with them for domestic reasons. The rest of us went back up the Palo Chutang valley to our old camp site below the lake. Phil, Skip, Julian and Pasang went up steep moraine above the lake to reach snowfields that would give us access to the south ridge of Gurudongmar. Although they found a way through, there was such rockfall danger that this route was abandoned. We checked out alternative routes. Lindsay wandered off to the west of the lake and came down saying that maybe that way would go but now the weather was turning and we all retreated to base camp. There was another dump of snow so we decided to send for the jeeps. I know Pasang and all the staff were disappointed we did not climb Gurudongmar and Chombu. They had worked so hard humping loads up to high camps and preparing food throughout the expedition. We have seldom had such loyal support. On the 26th we all walked up towards the Dongkya la (5495 m) a round trip of 42 km. We were disappointed not to have seen that much of Tibet. The clouds were down and a terrific wind blew through the col and the abandoned army installations.

Departure and Reconnaissance of North Side of Gurudongmar 27 October - 5 November

We left base camp on the 27th with no trace at all of our being there. We carried out all our rubbish and equipment on four jeeps and a truck. In one long drive we arrived in Gangtok late that night. Julian, Skip and Balwant went off by jeep for a three day recce to the north of our area, driving all the way to Gurudongmar lake. This was only possible because of Balwant's army connections. It was a visit well worth making as the weather was good on that side of the mountain. Three of the team at least had their curiosity satisfied by being able to check out the terrain beyond our northern skyline. Meanwhile, on the 29th, Lindsay, Phil and myself with the Darjeeling Sherpas left Gangtok for Darjeeling via the Rumtek monastery. We stayed the night as guests of HMI Darjeeling and were well accommodated and rewarded in the morning by a wonderful view of Kangchenjunga above the clouds. On the 30th we took a flight from Bagdogra to Delhi staying at the I.M.F. complex before flying on west to arrive home early in November.

Whilst the expedition did not achieve much in the way of peaks climbed, it was a worthwhile experience in good company and in a fascinating part of the world. We have come back with a lot of interesting information about the area and an almost complete photographic record which would be of use to anyone else going this way. And that could be a possibility for the Director of the I.M.F. informed us that they are to advertise the fact that this area is now open.

SUMMARY

Explorations in the northeast Sikkim by a British team in October 1996. Pt. 5745 m ('Chombu East") was climbed on 14 October 1996 and several other peaks were attempted.

 

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