Tirsuli West

Gautam Dutta

The Tirsuli group of peaks has rarely been ascended. The Tirsuli massif is allegorically alluded to the trident of Lord Shiva and it consists of three peaks viz the Tirsuli Main (or I) - 7074 m, Tirsuli West (or II) - 7035 m, and the Tirsuli East (or III) - 6663 m. An alternative view expressed by some climbers is that, when perused from the Nanda Devi east side, at the head of the Milam glacier, one observes three high summits of over 7000 m that are linked by a central plateau with a complex barrier of ridges, walls and glaciers guarding access to the top. These three peaks, namely Hardeol (or Tirsuli South) - 7151 m, Tirsuli East/main - 7074 m and Tirsuli West - 7035 m, constitute the trident of Lord Shiva. The massif is located approximately 22 km north of Nanda Devi in the Uttarakhand Himalaya. Tirsuli main peak had been climbed for the first time from Bengal under the leadership of veteran C.K. Mitra and this ascent is still much talked about even today.

The first attempt on Tirsuli West was made by a Polish team in 1939. It is said that four climbers lost their lives while attempting it's summit^[1]. One poorly documented record by C.D. Arora describes an attempt to this peak in 1968 from the Bagini glacier side. Roger Payne and Julie Anne Clyma attempted it via the west ridge in 1995. In the same year, another two-member team from Britain - New Zealand attempted it via the south wall. A British expedition in 1999 is said to have attempted it via the southwest ridge route but failed to reach the top. In 2001, two more attempts were made - one British team under Colin Knowles attempted to climb it via the north wall, whilst a German team under Ralf Messbacher attempted the south wall. Both attempts were unsuccessful. Tirsuli West was eventually ascended in 2001, via it's southwest ridge by a team of seasoned climbers from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering. They placed four camps on the route after base camp. In fact, this peak had been amongst the last virgin 7000 m peaks in the Garhwal and Kumaun. After the first ascent in 2001, there were more unsuccessful attempts and finally, an Indian team from the Border Security Force (BSF) reached its summit in September 2007.







At Jumma, 40 km and two hours away from Joshimath 12 ponies awaited us much to our delight. The poniwallahs loaded their ponies with about 50-55 kg (instead of the assured 80kgs that the agent had committed in writing) and moved on without paying any heed to our pleas about the commitment. From Jumma, one has to cross a bridge on the Dhauli ganga river to reach the left bank of the river. We stayed at the village school at Ruing (2578 m), which was about four km away from roadhead.

The next morning turned out to be a clear day. The trek to the village Dunagiri (3615 m) was through a conical forest zone having a span of about nine km, mostly uphill. Dunagiri or Dronagiri, is the last village in the valley, named after the famous Dunagiri (7066 m), from where, mythically, Lord Hanuman of the Ramayana is believed to have procured Sanjivani, a plant to save the life of Lakshman. The Dunagiri glacier is an important glacier of Dhauli ganga system, beside the Bagini and Changbang glaciers. A stream originating from the Dunagiri glacier at about 4240 m, popularly known as Dunagiri gad, has cut through the gorge on the other side of the village.

On 27 May, the forward party embarked for the base camp area. The proposed base camp was to be set up at an appropriate location on Bagini Kharak (4450 m). The route stretched along the curving course of Dunagiri gad. We crossed a small bridge after about a kilometre from Dunagiri village to follow a track along right bank of Dunagiri gad for about 2.5 km and reached the confluence of Dunagiri and Bagini gad. After this junction, following the Bagini gad for about three km to one of the lateral moraines of the Bagini glacier, we located the base camp at the Bagini Kharak, about 13 km from the Dunagiri village. It is a widely spread bugial with a wide array of flowers on a grassy meadow.

Villagers of Dunagiri, Ruing and other distant villages seem to be conscious about keeping the mountains clean and maintaining the ecological balance of the environment. However, rather ironically, they have begun crowding the mountain slopes hunting for the famous Kida- jari (Cordyceps Sinensis), a larva-fungal amalgamation of immense medical value that fetches them high prices. The locals search for them by digging deep into the ground. Fortunately the fragile ecosystem has survived, but for how long?

A combined 'Recce cum Ferry' was conducted to seek a suitable Camp 1 site - an appropriate location at a distance of about eight km was eventually found at the head of the Bagini glacier (5145 m). Our ferrying to the Camp 1 continued over the next two days and we established camp on 30 May.

During both the past ascents, snow accumulation on the hanging glacier must have been considerably low as their attempts were in later months than that of ours, reducing the probability of avalanche. The route to the eastern face was found to be riddled with crevasses and beset with falling rock. So we decided to attempt the southwest ridge, accessing it from the left side. Camp 2 was identified at a distance of hardly two hours for a loaded medium paced walker.

Camp 2 was established at 5415 m after negotiating a crevasse- riddled icefall located at head of the Bagini glacier on 1 June. We had fixed one full length rope between Camp 1 and Camp 2 to negotiate slippery rocky outcrops on icy glacier pitches.



The mountain started showing its fangs beyond Camp 2 as we began to negotiate its challenging southwest ridge, which is largely inaccessible due to its steep gradient. Anyone seeking to access it needs to climb through a combination of rock and ice on a rotten rocky base. An ideal high-risk rock-fall zone! About 1200 m of fixed rope was laid to open up the route to Camp 3, which we could establish at c. 5740 m. By 3 June, considerable effort had been put in by our forward climbing group as well as the support ferry group in converting Camp 3 into a habitable location.

By 6 June, the forward party had fixed another 800 m of rope opening the route almost up to the dangerous hanging glacier c. 6400 m. On the same day they were called back to base camp for some well deserved rest. The process of recuperation continued till 8 June and by the afternoon of 9 June nine climbers readied themselves for the summit push from Camp 3. All of them were to move forward the next morning for the long and demanding climb to Camp 4 which was to be established at c. 6630 m. The ridge was severely broken and at places highly exposed. It turned out to be a tedious climb for almost 13 hours with full load. En route, they fixed another 550 m of rope to ensure safe return. Three tents were precariously pitched at a narrow icy ledge just beyond the dangerous hanging glacier point. A skeletal group of three climbers conducted a further recce the next morning to negotiate rock pitches located above the hanging glacier that led to the summit, with an objective to make a summit attempt that night.



Our members at Camp 4 were ready for adventure and at the hour of midnight nine pairs of crampons started crunching the icy slopes beyond. Their movement was clearly visible even from Camp 1 as the nine light arcs of their head torches stood out distinctly in the pitch darkness of the night.

The night was unforgettable - though a little windy, the sky was clear with glittering stars some of which were known to us, and we never felt lonely as we could constantly see the encouraging light signals emanatingfrom our comrades at Camp 1 and they seemed to be with us all along till the end of the lingering night, recounted Debraj.

They reached the the summit of Tirsuli West at 7.42 a.m. on 12 June 2008 under bright and shimmering sunlight. Of the summit experience, the climbers observed, It was an almostflattish but corniced and sloppy summit having a gradient of about 20 degree running from west to east. And from the top one could see many peaks. Towards the far north the barren lands of Tibet could be seen and directly below we could see the tents of our Camp 1 and 3. We were jubilant and overjoyed.

As per our GPS readings, the height of the summit was 7032 m (i.e., 3 m less than that mentioned in maps) and having coordinates of 30°34.813'N/ 80°00.130'E. A total of three more ropes i.e. 330 m had to be fixed on the stretch between Camp 4 and the summit. Thus in totality about 3000 m of rope had been fixed.

The summiteers were Amresh Kumar Jha, Debraj Dutta, Goutam Saha, K. Wallambok Lyngdoh, Mohan Lal, and Subrata Chakraborty, besides the three HAAs ie Phurba Sherpa, Tashi Sherpa, and Dorjee Sherpa.

Members : Amresh Kumar Jha, C Y Basavaraj, Debraj Dutta, Goutam Saha, K.Wallambok Lyngdoh, Mohan Lal, Puyam Cha Mohon, Rajat Jangir, Subrata Chakraborty, Susanta Bhattacharya (Medical Officer) and Gautam Dutta (leader).

Summary :

The third ascent of Tirsuli West (7035 m) by a team from the Indian Mountaineering Foundation on 12 June 2008.

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[1] The Himalayan Journal , Vol. 58.