ATTEMPT ON THUI II FROM SHETOR GLACIER, 1969—BRITISH HINDU RAJ EXPEDITION.

[Reprinted by kind permission from the Alpine Journal]

R. J. ISHERWOOD

[Members: R. J. Collister, R. J. Isherwood (leader), Colin H. Taylor, Chris Wood, Major Munawar Khan, Army Service Corps (liaison officer)].

OUR planning was greatly helped by Dr. Gruber's article and panorama in A .J., 73, 55 (subsequently corrected in A.J., 74, 216). Although the highest summit, Koyo Zom (6,889 m.), was climbed in 1968 (A J., 74, 217), the two other principal peaks, Thui I (6,662 m.) and Thui II (6,524 m.) were unclimbed. A third peak, Thui Zom (6,158 m.), came to notice in the report of a small Japanese party as having a North face ‘more impressive than the Grandes Jorasses '.

We drove to Rawalpindi and as a result of various difficulties over permission, etc., reached Lasht on 31 July, about two weeks later than expected. Only Rob was fit to climb immediately, as the rest of us, on account of very badly blistered feet, had completed the journey on horseback, a harrowing experience for the uninitiated on the steep zigzags above the Yarkhun river. At this stage, we still had not seen Thui II, but a three-mile detour up the main valley gave an excellent view. It seemed to live up to Gruber's description of it as the finest isolated peak in the area.

Rob began a reconnaissance and found an excellent route up the West flank of the Shetor glacier to bypass its big lower ice¬fall. Porters were hired and in a few days we had established our Base Camp on a lateral moraine above the ice-fall at 15,000 feet—all, that is, apart from Munawar, who preferred to remain in Lasht. Load-carrying was completed by Chris and myself, while Rob and Colin explored the north side of the mountain and made a brief trip up the Shetor glacier to the col at the head. They climbed two peaks, one, which was tentatively named Pachan Zom (5,974 m.), was a striking snow-summit; but at the same time they established that there was no reasonable route for a small party on this the northern side of Thui II. Chris and I meanwhile, went up to the head of the Shetor glacier to look for an approach from the south or east. The South-east ridge seemed to provide a reasonable route, mostly on rock but not too steep, but the approaches to it were difficult to see. To get a better view we climbed two small peaks from a bivouac at 17,000 feet and, after struggling with waist-deep soft snow and crevasses situated surprisingly on the crests of corniced ridges, we were able to sort things out. There was clearly a route, threading through a system of bergschrunds to a snow-plateau below the South-east ridge.

Back at the Moraine Camp, we made plans. We hoped to put a camp on the snow plateau, at about 18,000 feet, and from there to climb the peak and return with one, or possibly two, bivouacs at a group of gendarme just over half-way up the ridge. After a rest day we set out with enormous loads for a single carry, in two days, to the snow-plateau. On the second day the route was made through the bergschrunds ; we were able to climb inside the lower lip of one schrund, and we surprised ourselves by reaching the plateau without using any fixed rope.

Hindu Raj-Thui2 1969

We set up camp in a superb position with a view north toward the Pamirs, east to three fine unnamed summits on the Shetor- Ponarilio watershed, and further to the bulk of Thui I, and south to Thui Zom. This peak showed a very impressive North face—it too lived up to what we had read about it. We saw no obvious route from this side, Thui Zom would make a fine objective and there are many other fierce-looking unclimbed peaks between 18,000 and 21,000 feet in the area.

Heavy cloud built up that evening and we woke next day to several inches of fresh snow and a white-out. We had heard that the weather often deteriorated in mid-August, and it was now the 19th. The weather remained bad for two days and we were glad to have some reading-matter, but on the 21st we woke to a very fine, cold morning. For the first and only time we saw the Rakaposhi group far away to the east.

We set out with duvets, sleeping-bags, bivouac sacs and food to last two days. With limited climbing gear our sacs weighed around 30 pounds. A slope of snow-ice, fairly steep but made easy by the peculiar snow-fences of the Hindu Kush, led us to the rock ridge, which, from our camp, had looked very short and easy-angled. The rock was superb granite, though often covered in debris. We soon found that the scale was bigger than we had thought. Some sections were steep and single out-of-balance moves were very strenuous. One pitch in the lower section needed a peg; this and the following pitch were probably IV. Above here the ridge steepened, but Colin, in the lead, had seen a line to the left of the crest. He traversed out onto a nose, in a superb position, and the next pitch took me up a fine series of flakes to bypass the steep section.

The ridge eased off, and just after lunch time we reached the gendarmes, impressive 50-foot granite monoliths. We could now see to the south-west, where an ugly black cloud was approaching. Colin and I, ahead of the others, left our bivouac gear and went on. After an ice pitch leading up to the gap between two gendarmes and a short descent on the other side, two more pitches led to a point from which the way ahead was fairly clear; mostly snow and snow-ice to the summit ridge, which itself looked fairly straightforward. We were clearly above most of the difficulties, but, unfortunately, it was far too late to reach the summit that day. We descended to rejoin the others and choose a bivouac site.

Pachan Zom c. 19,588 ft to the North wesy of Thui II. The route of the first ascent wasby the central snow ridge

View South from the Summit of Pahan Zom. The Photo shows Thui II, with the north west ridge leading to the summit; the attempt was made from the other side, by the south east ridge

The ridge in the left foreground is the south east ridge of Pchan zom, while the Risht gol is in the right foreground, with unnamed an unclimbed peaks behind

Thui II from the east taken from the col between the Shetor and Qalandar glaciers

At the foot of the two gendarmes was a flat area of ice, big enough for a tent if we had had one. This was an adequately sheltered site, but Colin and I were lucky. A little lower down a narrow snow passage between two blocks had collapsed and gave entry to a little cave. Fifteen feet down was a good niche for two, with stones to sit on. We were the first in ; Rob and Chris decided there was not room for four and spent the night on the ice platform.

We all had a reasonably good night: I took a sleeping pill and had some weird dreams. Next morning we emerged to fresh snow, a dark grey sky and no option but to go down. We were aware that we were not likely to get another chance. The descent, ending in a series of abseils down the snow-covered rocks, took most of the day and the next day, still in bad weather and mindful of avalanches, we descended the bergschrunds. Chris fell into three of these in succession, happily without serious consequences.

The glacier was in heavy cloud and route-finding was difficult. Many times the leading man put a leg through, but we were lucky this glacier seemed to have very few big crevasses above its lower ice-fall. Just before we reached the Moraine Camp the cloud lifted to show Koh-e-Baba-Tangi and the other peaks above the Oxus transformed into a Christmas-card view. It seemed that winter had come.

We had just time for another attempt provided the weather cleared, but after some false starts it settled into a monotony of dark clouds and snow showers. We packed up camp and descended to Lasht, where surprises awaited us. We discovered that our permission had been withdrawn two weeks previously and that at any moment an official investigation could be expected from the Pakistan Government. This was in fact carried out by a Colonel of the Chitral Scouts, a very friendly and impartial man ; we heard no more of it subsequently.

We returned to Rawalpindi on 12 September, and after a remark¬able series of events, during which we were formally debriefed, given verbal clearance to leave Pakistan, stopped at the Khyber Pass frontier, and delayed a further nine days in Rawalpindi, we eventually left for home.

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