GYA KATHA, 1997

PARAMJIT SINGH and ARUN SAMANT

Paramjit Singh writes:

GYA REMAINED a much sought after mountain in 1997 seeing three attempts being rebuffed by the uncompromising massif. A Bombay team led by Arun Samant on their second attempt on the peak approached it from the south through the Lingti valley in Spiti in April. The team reached the southeast col of the peak but gave up their attempt on the ridge of Gya to climb the subsidiary peak (6680 m.) to the southeast of the col.

An 8 member Delhi group consisting of Jishnu Das, Yousuf Zaheer and Paramjeet Singh along with three support members Arvind, Vipin and Ganeve and two HAPs Chaman Singh and Prakash approached the mountain from Changthang in the north with a view to climb on the west face rockwall of the mountain. The group was supported by a Shipton-Tilman award for a lightweight extreme climb on the mountain in good style. The ABC at the foot of the west face was established on 1 July. Owing to lack of consensus the intended rock route was abandoned in favour of the long west-spur-north-ridge combination which was gained after 300 m of steep scree to set up Camp 1. Camp 2 was established at about 6400 m on the narrow ridge after a treacherous climb on scree and 300 m of fixed rope over scree gullies and gendarmes of the ridge. Arvind and Prakash also helped ferry loads up to this camp. Different priorities and divided opinion on whether to cut across the technical west face in Alpine style towards the col below the summit ridge or to continue the fix and ferry routine along the long broken ridge over two subsidiary peaks to reach that col resulted in Paramjeet and Jishnu deciding to go no further. Chaman and Yousuf continued on the ridge and established Camp 3 at the top of the first high point at about 6480 m, where the west spur and the north ridge meet. They abseiled from here to gain the main ridge and reached the second high point on the ridge at about 6520 m which they have called ‘Gya north’. The way ahead to the col and the summit ridge was long and technical and the duo returned to Camp 3 to call off the attempt. Exiting to Chumar, PS with a hairline fracture in the knee and a feverish JD negotiated about 75 km (including a return trip up the glacier and the ABC) in less than 48 hours, without food. They consider this part of the trip as a consolation adventure deserving the Shipton-Tilman grant.

Photos 22-23-24

The ‘Summit any which way Syndrome’ reached its peak with the SAARC countries’ joint expedition organised under the leadership of Col. H.S. Chauhan, in August. A formidable team of about thirty strongest climbers from the army, the mountaineering institutes of Darjeeling and Manali, and climbers from Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, approached the mountain from Changthang after trekking over the Parang la from Spiti and part of the team doing the first raft descent of the Pare Chu river to Chumar. The objective was to climb to the summit from the W face/N ridge side and fixing the whole route from base to top so as to put every member on the summit. With a strong well-supplied team like that and no reservations about numbers or style, it was a foregone conclusion that the virgin summit will be well and truly ... ‘conquered’. But history repeated itself when in spite of maps, photos and publications of previous expeditions from this side, the team in a replay of another heavy duty army team (Dogras in 1995, who climbed Gyagar in Spiti instead HC Newsletter 50) failed to locate the obvious peak of Gya and pushed two very hard and exposed routes up the NW face between the north ridge and the west spur to the first high point (Camp 3 location of the Delhi team a month and a half earlier) taking it to be the summit and realising on top that the main summit was a long way off with a second high point (Gya North) in between. Unstable weather and shortage of time discounted a fresh attempt on Gya. The team put a total of 26 climbers on top of this high point which they called ‘Gya Sumpa’.

So the summit of Gya still awaits a small committed group of climbers offering them many elegant technical lines on rock and ice for a lightweight ascent. But then again a fifty member mounting team with a few kilometres of fixed rope might be thinking otherwise.

SUMMARY

Attempt on Gya. Nearby peaks were climbed : Gya North (6520 m), in July and Gyasumpa (6480 m) in August 1997, both first ascents.

Arun Samant writes :

We returned to Lingti valley of Eastern Spiti in Himachal Pradesh to launch one more attempt on Gya (6794 m). This is the highest peak at the tri-junction of Spiti, Ladakh and Tibet and still unclimbed.

The Mountaineering History of Gya

From the eastern side of Spiti, three teams from Bombay and the fourth team from Dogra Regiment had entered Lingti valley since 1983 and climbed various peaks around the watershed of the Lingti river. However, attempts to follow Lingti river and Chaksachan Lungpa to the base of Gya were thwarted by deep gorges and high waters. In 1994 and 1996 a team from Delhi approached Gya from the north over the Rupshu plateau, but were stopped by steep walls from reaching the summit on both the occasions.

During April-May, 1996 we succeeded in following the Lingti river and Chaksachan Lungpa till the base of Gya. However, shortage of local porters and the route-finding through the formidable gorges of these rivers consumed unplanned additional eleven days and precious food. The route to the peak Gya was opened till the location of C3 (6350 m) through steep snow gullies but a spell of bad weather and shortage of food forced us to abandon further attempts.

Attempt on Gya and Climbs Around it

Based on past experience, Dhananjay Ingalkar, Anil Chavan and I launched ourselves once again along the partially frozen Lingti towards the base of Gya (6794 m) during the first week of April 1997. This time a locals were the little more cooperative and carried loads from Lingti village upto Sumna, the confluence of Lingti river and the Chaksachan Lungpa. We retained two locals and four men from Kumaon to help us establish the base camp. Eight days from the roadhead we were at the base camp (4800 m) with all our loads compared to nineteen days needed the previous year to get only half the loads there. The approach march had been a real cake-walk this time.

We also had Pasang Bodh, Prakash Bodh and Vinod Bodh from Manali to help us above the base camp. Camp 1 (5200 m) and Camp 2 (5650 m) were quickly set up over known territory, a rope in the gully was refixed and an attempt on Gya was immediately commenced. Pasang, Prakash, Vinod and I left Camp 2 in the morning, 22 April, climbed the lower snow gully and the fixed rope safely this time, I had a fall here in 1996. We climbed up further and camped below the bottom of a rockwall at midday. It took us in four hours. Camp 3 at 6050 m offered great views towards Gyagar ridge. The north face of Gyagar and its ridges looked steep, broken and extremely difficult to ascend or descend.

The next day we wound up C3, traversed to our right to the bottom of the next gully and climbed it. The route alternated between snow - gullies, rocks and scree ridges. The average angle of the climb was 50 degrees. It was easier in the lower part due to the soft snow but difficult higher up due to a thin layer of snow on ice. Five hours of climbing brought us to a patch of flat ground (6300 m) which could accommodate a tent. The site of C4 was exposed but safe from the occasional rock falls ensuing from the face of Gya.

On 24 April, Pasang, Prakash and I climbed up the scree slope above C4 to the base of the main rockwall and traversed upwards on a narrow snow-ledge along the base of the rockwall. The ledge abruptly ended at the top of an ice-wall. A rappel down the wall and a traverse along its base to the scree slope beyond took one hour. Scrambling on the vast scree slope suddenly brought us to a col on the southeast ridge of Gya. A hard look at the summit ridge of Gya from the col was sufficient to convince us that it was not for us. It was completely broken with rock gendarmes, snow cornices, ice flutings, too technical and dangerous for our liking. The view of Tso Moriri lake and Tibet towards the north was fantastic. Rows of dark brown similar peaks with snow caps, in Tibet, looked like a mystic beautiful thanka hung on the wall of a monastery. We continued along the corniced ridge southeast from the col and were soon on top of a corniced peak 6680 m in height. We decided to name this consolation peak ‘Gya East’. The next day starting from C4 we directly descended to C1 in ten hours to be greeted by Anil and Dhananjay, who had been busy in the meantime carrying out a reconnaissance of routes to the 6275 m and 6230 m peaks southeast of Gya.

All of us descended to the base camp for a well-deserved rest. We still had a week before the local porters came up to the base camp. We made new plans. Anil, Pasang, Dhananjay and Prakash decided to go back to C1 to attempt peaks 6275 m and 6230 m whereas Vinod and I opted to stay at the base camp and try something on our own.

Anil’s group occupied C1 on 29 April and the next day established C2 (5750 m) on a subsidiary glacier between two peaks. On 1 May four of them split into two teams. Anil and Pasang climbed the 45 degree east face of 6275 m peak, which they named ‘Drisa’, to gain a scree and a snow ridge. They continued along the ridge to the bottom of a steep gully. They roped up to climb it and reached the summit ridge. The summit was gained at 11.00 a.m. four hours after leaving C2. The pair came down most of the way by the same route.

On the same morning Dhananjay and Prakash climbed a snow slope to a depression on the northwest ridge of the 6230 m peak, climbed to a corniced high point on the ridge, descended to another col and climbed to the summit of 6230 m peak ‘Cheama’, at 10.30 a.m. Both the points reached appeared to have the same height. It was unsafe to return by the route of ascent, hence the pair took a different line of descent, initially along the southwest ridge and later over the west face of this ridge to C2.

Near the base camp was a peak 5665 m in height, which involved a climb of about 850 m from the base camp and an interesting route to its top. On 30 April, Vinod and I left the camp rather late for this peak. A one and a half hour walk brought us to the base of its north face. We scrambled up a scree slope and then up a 40 degree snow-slope till midday to the base of the summit pyramid. The top was guarded by steep rockwalls except for a breach in its defences : a near vertical snow-gully. This steep gully was connected to the base of the summit pyramid by an exposed narrow ledge, which leaned outwards. Realising that we did not have sufficient time on our hands to negotiate this crux section, go to the top and return we decided to withdraw to the base camp. The next day we made an early start. Helped by the footprints of the previous day we reached the base of the summit pyramid quite early. The ledge and the 60 m gully had to be negotiated with utmost care on short belays. We were on the summit, ‘Namkha Ding’ by 2.30 p.m. with superb views of peaks, including Gyagar, all around us. We descended the crux section again on belays. Once at the base of the summit pyramid we glissaded down on our backs to the glacier below in just 20 minutes. It was the last day for me. I walked towards the camp at leisure enjoying, absorbing and savouring everything around me.

SUMMARY

Members :

Arun Samant (leader), Anil Chavan (deputy leader), Dhananjay Ingalkar, Supported by Pasang Bodh, Prakash Bodh and Vinod Bodh.

Activities :

1. Climbed east face of S.S.W. spur of Gya (6794 m) and traversed to the southeast col (6520 m)
2. Climbed Gya East, 6680 m by northwest ridge on 24 April 1997. Summiters: Pasang Bodh, Prakash Bodh, Arun Samant.
3. Climbed Drisa, 6275 m (Yaksha) by east face on 1 May 1997. Summiters : Pasang Bodh, Anil Chavan.
4. Climbed Cheama, 6230 m (Twins) by northwest ridge, descended over west face of southwest ridge, on 1 May 1997. Summiters : Prakash Bodh, Dhananjay Ingalkar.
5. Climbed Namkha Ding, 5665 m (Garuda) by north face on 1 May 1997 Summiters: Vinod Bodh, Arun Samant

All climbs were first ascents and names of peaks climbed were given by the team.

Period :

30 March to 14 May 1997

Sponsored by : The Climbers, Mumbai

 

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