The climbing scene in the Indian Himalaya was active, as always. The East Karakoram area received three expeditions during the year; they different in style and went to different regions within the area.
The only joint expedition with foreigners was an Indo-British team led by Sonam Palzor. Rimo II (7373m) and Ramo IV (7169m) were climbed on 12 July in separate attempts. They reached the North Terong glacier with 38 porters, intending to climb Rimo III (7233m). The teams consisted of Stephen Sustad (USA), Nick Kekus and Doug Scott (UK), Robert Schauer (Austria), Rob and Laurie Wood (Canada) and Sharavati Prabhu
The Year began with celebrations. The Himalayan Club, born in 1928, celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in February at Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta. A series of talks, exhibitions and dinners was organised.
At Bombay, Stephen Venables was the main attraction with four talks on his climbing experiences. (‘I filled in the gaps’ was his understatement in a letter to a british magazine.) His presentations were highly appreciated and his presence symbolized the Club flourished until the early 1960$ when the last Britishers left. Then, for a decade, Soli Mehta ran the shown single-handedly ( he is still much involved in it). Since
As I climbed up the Malathuni ridge on the way to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary in 1974, a porter from Lata came within earshot and whispered, ‘Don’t tell anyone, but last few years “they” have been carrying things up and down Nanda Devi secretly.’ This ‘don’t tell anyone’ activity of ‘they’ was known to many – climbers, and politicians alike – but it was an open secret for many years. In 1987, with a change of government, it was leaked from knowledgeable sources in all newspapers that there had been four Indo-American expeditions, two each to Nanda Devi and Nanda
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