Journey through Eastern Girthi and Jainti Gad Valleys of Garhwal

Partha Pratim Mitra

The easternmost corner of Garhwal is known as the Girthi. This area, which has several high passes, plateaus and lofty peaks, was famous for many centuries for the massive Indo-Tibet trade traffic. But due to the intractable terrain¹ and the huge permission complexity as the desolated frontier concern² this region could never gain its potential popularity.

The Girthi region had a few pristine villages – Margaon, Kailaspur and Kurkuti and one market – Malari Mandi, which used to attract traders from far and wide. The caravans would come from Tibet across the passes to sell their simple merchandise. The villagers of the Girthi region also travelled to Tibet for trading. Most of these local traders were predominantly of Bhotia origin, belonging to the Marcha and Tolcha communities. Even though they converted to Buddhism during the time of Tibetan domination, the people still retain a strong Garhwali influence.

However the game suddenly changed – all the ancient trade routes were restricted after the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1950 and the Sino-India war in 1962, which resulted in a ban over the entire Himalayan trade routes.

The prime part of the Girthi basin, Girthi gorge of the western valley was visited by several early explorers. Major Edmund Smyth was the pioneer who intended to investigate the gorge area in 1862³. This area was first traversed by Dr. Kurt Boeckh in 1893⁴. In the last few decades western Girthi valley was explored by W. H. Murray’s Scottish Himalayan Expedition in 1950⁵ and the route was followed in 1986 by Harish Kapadia’s team⁶. In 2011, a team led by Ashutosh Mishra made explorations in the western territory of Girthi valley and Kio gad valley⁷. Western Girthi valley was partially documented by Lt. Hugh Rose⁸, Aspi Moddie⁹ and Vineeta Muni¹⁰ in their respective reports.

After analyzing this research material I concluded that all expeditions and explorations have ventured into the western Girthi valley and Kio gad valley but it seemed that expedition reports were over simplified by not distinguishing the separate geographical existence of the east and west Girthi valleys. Only Harish Kapadia had noted the structural orientation of the Girthi region and mentioned the eastern Girthi valley. This fact seemed intriguing and certainly worth investigating – I was curious to explore the mysterious eastern Girthi valley.

After scanning the maps again, I observed Jainti gad and Chubag gad are the two most significant streams emerging from Lala Saisani glacier adjoining Barmatia peak. The Chubag gad flows southwards and merges with east Girthi nala ahead of Kurkuti village. I decided to follow the Chubag gad upstream to enter the eastern Girthi valley.

Baisakhi Mitra and I arrived in Joshimath on 14 September 2014 to join my old expedition partner, Mukesh Singh. After spending a day to obtain permits, we left for Malari, a three-hour drive from Joshimath. We hired Bhuwan Singh (77), the oldest Malari shepherd, who had 60 years of experience shepherding in the valleys of western Girthi, Kio gad and the Tibetan plains.

The jeep left us near Karkuti village and we moved towards Margaon. We pushed upwards one and a half km reaching Kailaspur village (3450 m), near the Hanuman and Nain Singh temples¹¹ not far from our shelter. At teatime, a few elder villagers visited us. After hearing our plans, the villagers protested in unison; they said setting foot on Chubag would bring bad luck to their village and believed that the terrain was thus still forbidden to them. After a lot of discussion, Bhuwan Singh’s arbitration assured them that we would go ahead only if we found the terrain accessible.

Area map of Girthi valley

Chubag nala

On 17 September, we started at 7:00 a.m. leaving behind the drowsy village of Kailashpur with the left bank of the Girthi Ganga going eastward. The Malari road, frequented by Army and ITBP trucks, resembled a narrow ribbon as we climbed the steep route covered with juniper shrubs. After moving with the trail which zigzags up the steep gradient, we traversed a dangerous cliff and reached a scree-filled slope. Then the route suddenly turned northwards. Here we found a stream forcing its way through a gorge to meet the east Girthi nala at ‘4 Pt camp’. Consulting a contour map, I was assured that this stream was indeed the Chubag gad nala. Our immediate destination was upstream of this solitary rivulet.

Chubag valley

We kept pushing northward through the left bank of the gorge and finally entered the hidden portico of the eastern Girthi valley : the Chubag valley. We walked along the grass, juniper and rhododendron-covered path that led to the bottom of an elevated rock wall and found an overhang where we decided to camp. This was a gravel meadow which is locally called ‘Lagar’. So I named the camp ‘Lagar Udiar’.

On 18 September, leaving Lagar Udiar early, we hiked up the path, followed by a right side traverse to the bottom of a moraine wall. We pushed up westward and reached the top of the moraine wall at 1:00 p.m. which was the Chubag (4200 m) campsite.

On 19 September, we started walking at 7.30 a.m. through the steep grassy rock slope, savouring the change in the landscape as we moved higher. Instead of the lush greenery there was a vast expanse of brown rocks and tall barren mountain ridges. After negotiating a few humps followed by a traverse to the right, we reached the high point of the ridge at 2:00 p.m. The view from the high point was exemplary! We observed the Chubag gad forcing its way through the gorge to meet the east Girthi nala further south. The gorge was spectacular in sections. But that forced us to climb and traverse the treacherous left bank slopes repeatedly. We had made a cairn for future identification on top of the ridge. Viewed as the bounding ridge it defined the extremity of the Chubag valley. So I named the ridge ‘Chubag dhar’ (c. 4450 m) and the gorge ‘Chubag gorge’.

From Chubag dhar we pushed upwards, taking the northwestern side along the horrible scree-filled zone. After four hours of ceaseless climbing we reached the vast grassy highland, which encompassed shallow and brown rocky mountains, at 4:30 p.m. amidst a sharp cold breeze. Our map suggested that the highland was Mucham plateau (4697 m) and the entire desolated terrain was the Mucham valley. Bhuwan Singh thought for a moment and told us that Mucham means ‘abode of soul’ in the Tibetan language.

On 20 September, after leaving the Mucham campsite early we went down along a grassy zone towards the north with the Chubag gad on the right. The nature of the landscape changed rapidly. The entire territory had become trans-Himalayan; shallow and barren brown rocky mountains with sprinklings of snow at places. After two and a half hours we reached the proximity of northernmost terminal part of Chubag gorge, in between north and northwest ridges. After scanning the fragile and horribly cracked part of the ravine I realized that it was impossible to cross it. So we returned at noon to our previous position on the ledge of western ridge where the gradient eased.

Mucham camp

Dunagiri from Mucham

Chalab from Mucham

We decided to find an interim passage between the northern ridge and eastern semi-circle ridge. We started to move upstream after crossing the Chubag gad’s terrible current and climbed through the steep gradient of rock slope towards northeast.

After traversing the two active rock fall zones, we climbed a spur and finally reached the high point on the eastern ridge. Our contour map and compass suggested that we were standing on the barrier rim of the eastern Girthi valley. It was a moment of delight because perhaps no human being had set foot on this before us.

On 21 September, leaving Mucham camp at 6:00 a.m. we climbed westwards along a difficult 300 m steep grassy rock slope that led to the top of a moraine wall. Then we started to descend on the other side of the wall and reached the upper Mucham plateau, a broad grassy highland filled with small multi-coloured bullet shaped stones known as Thoneldunga.

Uja Tirche from Mucham

Kunti Bhanar from Mucham

We started to descend through the scree zone to a left traverse which led to a boulder-strewn zone for a short scramble of one and half hour. We suddenly stopped in front of a huge unfathomable pit. Ahead towards the west we could see the distant view of an unnamed peak (5242 m) – totally devoid of snow. Our map suggested that beyond it there was another peak called Lama Surjang (5139 m). It was impossible to find a passage so we returned to Mucham campsite by 12:00 noon. After dismantling the camp we descended on the difficult gradient to Chubag meadow. All were exhausted and Bhuwan Singh suddenly felt ill so I decided to call it a day and we pitched tents on the meadow.

On 22 September, leaving Chubag camp late, at 9:30 a.m., we retraced our way to Kailaspur village at noon. We rested, sitting on the terrace of Nain Singh temple. I noticed the picturesque view of Margaon in the west and the serene beauty of the expanse of the southwest semicircle ridge in the background. Dr. T. G. Longstaff, on the expedition in 1907, had mentioned ‘Kurkuti Dhar’ in his report¹². After consulting the map, I realized that this semicircle ridge was actually Longstaff’s ‘Kurkuti Dhar’. We resumed our journey and reached Margaon at 1:30 p.m. Meanwhile, Bhuwan Singh was quite ill so we decided that he should return.

Jainti Dhura

According to the topographical backdrop, Lama Surjang, totally devoid of snow, stood as a sentinel above Margaon village. From ancient times this solitary peak was considered holy by the villagers. Adjoining the eastern flank of that peak, a slightly curved ridge expanded northeastwards. Our map suggested that there was a pass, known as Thali dhura, linking the northeast ridge and southwestern semicircular ridges. In Tibetan ‘Lama’ means wise man, ‘sur’ is gold and ‘jang’ is a high rocky mountain. Thus ‘Lama Surjang’ meant presentation of a gold treasury by a wise man.

Apart from some indistinct descriptions by Gurdial Singh in his expedition report¹³, we have no authentic information about Lama Surjang’s adjacent territory. Naturally Thali dhura and its adjoining area were unknown.

On 23 September, leaving Margaon village at 7:00 a.m., we walked westwards along the steep, grassy, juniper-lined path, zigzagging up the steep gradient and kept moving north. After a series of climbs, we crossed a rock fall zone and reached narrow grassland. We camped here (‘Cold Camp’, c. 4575 m).

We were rewarded by a spectacular mountain vista on the horizon. But the distant sight that held us spellbound was of Jainti dhura (5992 m) which lay on the extreme eastern side, adjoining the Tibet border.

On 24 September, we started to climb towards the northwest along the grass and rock mixed steep slope. Again after steep climbs, we carefully negotiated two pinnacles and kept moving towards the pass through the loose scree.

At about 9:30 a.m., we reached the narrow high part of Thali dhura (c. 5020 m). After half an hour Mukesh and others joined us. It was a historical moment because perhaps no human being had set on it foot before. We placed our national flag here with pride and hugged each other.

We descended to the lower part of Thali dhura (4590 m). From here we could see the picturesque villages of Bampa, Gamsali and Niti along with the sprawling expanse of the Bank Kund glacier on the west. We also observed a pit at the western end of the pass where the adjoining rock wall dropped straight to the stream of Amrit ganga. After scanning the distant frontal ridge I observed and located a depression that looked like a pass which was not marked on the Survey of India map. As this was confusing, we decided to explore the pass.

Next day, while climbing a steep slope, we reached the narrow pass at 12:30 p.m. The view from this pass was almost similar to that of Thali dhura. We also observed a pristine hidden valley. Scanning through the telephoto lens, I could see a stream flowing westward. This would lead us towards the north, to the right bank of Jainti gad. So I decided to name this virgin pass ‘Jainti dhura’ (c.5000 m). After four hours of ceaseless descent we reached the right bank of Jainti gad and decided to camp on the grass zone.

According to the contour map a few kilometres ahead to the north from our Jainti gad camp was Hunia kharak (4044 m). A trail zigzagged up to the drab brown and purple coloured steep path from Hunia kharak which led to the Chor Hoti dhura (5429 m). We continued descending for two hours to reach Temarsain (3389 m). We made a quick visit to Niti village and later walked down to Gamsali. This was our last camp. On 26 September we left Gamsali village late in the morning and finally reached Joshimath.

View from Jainti Dhura

View from Niti village

Summary
This was an exploratory journey across the untrodden terrains of eastern Girthi Valley and ‘Jainti gad valley’ in Garhwal.

Bibliography

1. The Himalayan Gazetteer, Allahabad, India, E.T. Atkinson (1882), Vol-3, P-86, 324.
2. Western Tibet and The British Borderlands, London, UK, C.A. Sherring (1905), P-344.
3. P-33, ‘The Mountain Provices – Garhwal and Sirmor’ by Col. R Phillimore, Historical Records of the Survey of India, Vol-3-1954.
4. Report of the officials of Government of India and the People’s Republic of China of the boundary Question – Part 3 – 1960.
5. Survey work in the Nanda Devi region by Eric Shipton, HJ Vol – IX, 1937.
6. An account of the ‘Journey to Rakastal and Manasarovar in Western Tibet’ in 1848, S. R. Strachey (1900), The Geographical Journal, Vol – XV, P-165.
7. The Scottish Himalayan Expedition, W.H. Murray (1951), P-203.
8. Summit Journal, Kolkata, Issue – 2007, P-4.
9. Anchor Journal, Calcutta, Monotosh Kumar Bandyopadhyay, Vol-2, P-34.
10. Paaharer Preme Journal, Calcutta, Monotosh Kumar Bandyopadhyay, Vol-3, P-14.
11. Abode of Snow, London, Kenneth Mason (1955).
12. Kailash – Manasarovar, New Delhi, Swami Pranavanand (1949).
13. Alpine Journal, 1908.
14. High Himalaya Unknown Valleys, New Delhi, Harish Kapadia (1993).
15. Indian Mountaineer Vol-22, P-173.
16. The Himalayan Journal : Vol-1, P-98; Vol-IV, P-136, 137; Vol-XVI, P-42; Vol-XIX, P-9; Vol-XXII, P-148; Vol–55, P-20, 114; Vol–67, P-82.

Author
Partha Prathim Mitra loves mountaineering. The spirit of adventure takes him to untravelled mountain territories. He deeply believes in living his childhood hero Eric Shipton’s famous quote – I appreciated as never before not only the joys of unencumbered travel but also the deep satisfaction of exploring unknown ranges; and from then on I became far more interested in this than in climbing peaks. This gives direction to his life as well as his forays in the great Himalaya.

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