TRAILL’S PASS EXPEDITION, 1994

ANUP SAH and Lt. Col. J. C. JOSHI

THIS HIMALAYAN PASS was named after George William Traill, the 2nd British Commissioner of Kumaon (1816-1836), as Everest was named after George Everest, the illustrious Surveyor-General of India (1830-1843). A comparison between the two, though not relevant, is interesting. Both Georges earned the distinction sometime after relinquishing their posts and even the legend of Radhanath Sikdar related to the discovery of Everest has a parallel, Malak Singh Buda, in the first crossing of the pass in 1830. Both Traill and Everest began service in India with the East India Company about the first decade of the 19th Century.

By Himalayan standards, the Pindari glacier and the Traill’s Pass do not match most of the giants. The Pindari is neither the largest nor the longest of the glaciers nor is the Traill’s Pass, at its head, the highest of passes. However, Pindari has been the most frequently visited Himalayan glacier since the mid-19th century when a bridle-path with dak bungalows at suitable intervals between there and Almora was built. Even today, it is so popular a trekking destination that a tenfold increase in the number of beds available is unable to cope with the influx.

What faces a visitor to Pindari glacier at the Zero Point, along its left lateral moraine, is an immense wall of jagged, broken ice crisscrossed with thousands of seracs and crevasses. The upper icefields of the glacier are invisible from there and the near level ice mass at its lower end at the snout below recedes into insignificance. What people call the Pindari glacier is actually a huge icefall passing over a steep slope, through which a direct ascent has yet to be made. Above this lie the icefields of the surrounding heights and the névé basin of the glacier, some 8 kms long, separated from the ridge above with a text-book fashion bergschrund. The lowest point on the ridge at 5400 m is the Traill’s Pass. Beyond the pass to the north and east lies the Lwan valley whose catchment is the Gori ganga valley.

Colour Plates 1-2
Panorama A
Photos 11 to 14

The idea of crossing Traill’s Pass was proposed by C. L. Sah Thulgharia, President of the Nainital Mountaineering Club (N.T.M.C.). 1994 was the silver jubilee year of the N.T.M.C., and the birth centenary of Commissioner George William Traill. An important landmark within our Kumaon region, the Traill’s Pass seemed an appropriate objective to tackle. Local legend said the pass had been a trade route between Danpur (Pindar valley area) and Johar in and before the 18th century. The pass is an obvious technical challenge. It’s close to Zero Point in the Pindari valley and the Lwan valley in the north. There is a lot of folklore about Malak Singh Buda, Diwan Singh and Bishan Singh. All that plus the fact that no one had attempted to cross the pass since 1941 decided in favour of making a first attempt through an organised mountaineering expedition.

Traill’s Pass is situated at the head of the Pindari glacier. The upper névé basin and icefields that feed the glacier are flanked by Nanda Khat (6611 m) on the west and Changuch (6322 m) on the east. The Pindari river emerges from the glacier’s southern snout at Martoli, and joins the Alaknanda at Karnaprayag. The Lwan valley’s main drainage is through the Lwan gad glaciers and the icefields north of the Nanda Kot massif, east of Longstaff col. The south ridge between Nanda Devi East and Mapa Dhura also drain into Lwan gad which joins the Gori river little below Martoli village in the Gori ganga valley. The entire region is in the Johar sub-division of Pithoragarh district in U.P. East Johar, separated by the formidable Panch Chuli massif, with many ridges and peaks running in a northwesterly direction upto India’s border with Tibet, is the Darma region of Kumaon.

All past attempts on Traill’s Pass, except perhaps Traill’s own, were made by small, self-contained parties. Ours was an expedition with 10 or more members. As it turned out all our porters except one refused to move beyond the ridge camp and we members carried the expedition loads across the pass.

The team chosen consisted of experienced mountaineers, the sole exception being Dr. S. S. Pangti, a historian belonging to Munsiary. His enthusiasm, local knowledge and physical fitness more than made up for his 57 years of age and lack of formal training in mountaineering. A party of trekkers accompanied up upto Sura Kharak. We were a total of 32 persons who set course from Nainital.

The NTMC’s successful ascent of Nanda Khat (6611 m) in 1972 had given us a good view of the icefields and the névé basin above Pindari icefall. This was substantiated well by a survey map. It was decided to approach and bypass the Pindari icefall along the right bank to get to the rocky ridge southeast of Nanda Khat. A direct ascent of the Traill’s Pass through the Pindari icefall, though possible with modern equipment and techniques, was considered extremely hazardous and ruled out.

We decided upon the expedition route as follows : Base camp at Martoli Kharak on the right bank of the Pindari river, camp at Sura Kharak - Takhta camp - Ridge camp - intermediate camp on the glacier if required - Traill’s Pass camp - Lwan glacier camp.

We expected to complete the crossing from the BC to Lwan glacier in 10 days.

As per the plan, all expedition stores, tents, equipment and ration had been packed by pony loads, by the 23 September. Advance notice had been sent to the roadhead at Song and the ponies kept ready there.

We left Nainital on 23 September and reached Loharkhet the same evening after a short trek of 3 kms, passing Dhakuri, Khati, Dwali and Phurkiya. We established the base camp at Martoli Kharak (3275 m) on the right bank of the Pindari river, crossing it over a shepherd’s bridge and stones. The shepherds of Khati and Wachcham villages had already withdrawn to the valley with their flocks for the winter so a stone hut was available for the cook-house, and as sleeping quarters for the cooks and a few members. The others pitched their tents around it and base camp was established.

Next morning the entire team recrossed the Pindari river over the shepherd’s bridge and a few of us climbed upto 4880 m beyond Chhanguch cairn. Looking northwards from this point we got a magnificent panoramic view. Thanks to clear visibility on that cloudless day, the point also afforded an excellent view of the Pindari icefall, the upper icefields and névé of the glacier, and of the Traill’s Pass itself. The view confirmed our apprehensions about a direct ascent of the Pindari icefall and the feasibility of the Nanda Khat route.

The next 5 days were spent in occupying and stocking an advance base camp (ABC) at Sura Kharak at about 4100 m. A ridge separating the Pindari valley from Bura glacier had to be ascended, crossed and descended to cross the torrential stream emerging from it. After that another ridge had to be skirted to reach the ABC. It was a long 6 to 7 hour trek. The trekkers helped to carry the expedition loads. The Bura gal stream which increased its discharge of water with the heat of the sun was made passable by the only aluminium ladder the expedition carried. The ladder was not used after that and was brought back by the support party.

The trekkers turned back on 30 September. Simultaneously, the ABC was occupied and a further camp, known as Takhta camp was established and occupied at 4560 m. Lying on the southeast ridge of Nanda Khat and flanked by glaciers and icefalls to the east and south of it, this camp was so called because of the wooden planks (takhta) brought up and used here to bridge the crevasses by a climber very long ago. A little above this camp is the 800 m high rockface whose ascent is restricted to a steep rock culminating in a very long narrow couloir and a final steep gully that emerges on the top.

The task of fixing ropes on this stretch of difficult rock fell on Subodh Chandola, Anil Bisht and Naveen Tewari. Weather was bad and sleet and snow converted the gully and the couloir into a running stream.

The crossing of the rockface and the ferrying of loads up from Takhta camp took some effort. The couloir varied between 45⁰ to 85⁰ in gradient. Jumars had to be used for both climbers as well as for loads. It required technical skills of a very high order. The danger was further compounded by frequently falling boulders and verglass. Miraculously, no one was injured.

By October the ridge camp was established and occupied by Anup Sah, Naveen Tewari, Subodh Chandola, Kirti Chand and Prem Bahadur. The rest of the members had started very late from the Takhta camp and due to bad weather and exhaustion were forced back. Next day Anil Bisht, Gajendra, Bora, Ashraf Ali, Aslam Ali and Dr. S. S. Pangti started again for the ridge camp early in the morning. They faced great difficulty in negotiating the 240 m fixed rope because of verglass of the previous days and the continuous snowfall on that day as well.

After the ridge camp there was a further ascent of about 100 m before we could descend on the higher reaches of the Pindari glacier. We had bypassed the Pindari icefall. The upper icefields of the glacier were criss-crossed with crevasses. Loose snow and heavy loads made the progress extremely slow. In the meantime the above advance party established an emergency camp at the glacier because they were facing difficulties due to a hail storm and deep, dangerous crevasses. By late in the evening the Takhta camp party reached the ridge camp. We left a note that they must start for the further camp early next morning.

Next day the advance party moved ahead and found a path above long, large and hidden crevasses. The crevasses across the path had to be carefully skirted making progress extremely slow. Each step had to be probed. The last camp south of and just below the Traill’s Pass was established on 7 October in the evening, after 8 hrs of battling our way through adverse conditions. We were low on rations and each member was carrying about 30 kg of gear and equipment. The morale of the team, fortunately, was sky high and each one was determined to continue. The second party joined us late in the evening around 6 p.m.

There were minor mishaps of falling in crevasses. The melting of ice for making tea for 11 people took 3 to 4 hrs as we had just one stove. Night temperatures were as low as -15°C. necessitating storage of cameras and water bottles inside sleeping bags.

Traill’s Pass was reached on 8 October. Overjoyed, standing on the pass 53 years after the last humans had done so, we were spellbound by the awe-inspiring view of the Nanda Devi Main and East peaks from the pass. We went through the ritual of hoisting the national and club flags as well as the ‘Mother Flag’ of Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

The euphoria was rudely terminated when we confronted the prospects immediately before us. While the rope was being fixed to descend to the Lwan glacier, the weather turned cloudy. Soon a blizzard was raging around us. Only 6 members could, with some difficulty, descend along the fixed rope. Of these, two members climbed back again, one of them sick, to Camp 1 at Traill’s Pass at 1 a.m. The other four were lucky to find a cave to spend an anxious and uncomfortable night in. The rest of us at Traill’s Pass were very anxious.

On 9 October, we began our descent at 8 a.m. With just about 140 m of fixed rope, we had to descend about 570 m. By descending free sometimes and carefully re-employing sections of the first rope at others, we managed the feat of safely descending on the Lwan glacier after 12 hrs of gruelling work. The next morning, 11 October, we reached Martoli. En route, we received a very welcome hot tea from a Spanish expedition team returning from Nanda Devi East. Munsiary was reached on the 13th and Nainital on 15 October.

In conclusion I would like to state that a traverse across Traill’s Pass, barring the altitude factor, remains a formidable challenge. Those who wish to test their technical skills on rock, snow and ice, endurance fans as well as pundits of logistics will find Traill’s Pass a satisfying objective.

Successful members of the team : Anup Sah (leader), Naveen Tewari, Subodh Chandola, Km. Lata Joshi, Dr. S. S. Pangti, Anil Bisht, Kirti Chandra, Ashraf Ali, Aslam Ali, Gajendra Bora and Prem Bahadur (H.A.P.)

SUMMARY

A crossing of Traill’s Pass in October 1994 by a team from Nainital, India.

 

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