~ An Article from "Sunday World" dated August 12, 1973 ~
" Indian Schoolboys' Expedition '73
Indian mountaineering
had it origins in schools, with some adventurous and farsighted
schoolmasters taking out parties of boys on climbing vacations in
Garhwal and Kumaon. Though the early explorations and pioneering
ascents, as also the most sensational climbs. Were undertaken by
geologists, surveyors or missionaries, generally foreigners, the
foundations of these Himalayan traditions by these school masters led
to Indian mountaineers like Nandu Jayal, Gurdial Singh and Tenzing
taking to the sport seriously.
Expeditions from the
Doon school to Nanda Devi, and the successful training expeditions of
large numbers of boys to Jaonli 21,760 feet, in Garhwal, and the
final ascent of Jaonli by schoolboys, were the natural sequel to
J.T.M. Gibson and John Martyn's expeditions to the Bandarpunch area.
It was only natural,
therefore, that when we planned a schoolboy expedition with the
unique feature that it should cover every kind of school in India, we
should get in touch with Mr. “Jack” Gibson, and plan it in the
Bandarpunch and Har-ki-Dun areas beyond Chakrata.
Birth of the Idea
The
idea originated at the 32nd
Public Schools Conference held in New Delhi in February 1973 when S.R
Das and Hari Dang wondered what Public Schools, that much criticized
genre of excellent and now democratized and merit-based institutions,
could do to help the vast could not do to help the vast constructive
effort being made by the nation to improve the standard of education
in the country. We approached the Delhi Mountaineering Association
to sponsor the expeditions, and rather late in the day, in April, set
about organizing the funds and equipment and other details. When one
is working with headmasters like S.R. Das and Hari Dang, with the
“technical advice” of “Jack” Gibson, certain expectations are
held. I was in the position of also being an employee of the school
of which one of them is the Headmaster!
With
funds and equipment, Sherpas, transport and porterage, all being
organized by the Delhi Mountaineering Association's capable joint
secretary, Mr. D.P. Pandey, who was also Deputy Leader of the
expedition, I had very few worries. Mr. Pandey and his two D.M. A.
colleagues, Swadesh Kumar and Mr. Jain, looked after all the details
of finance and accounts, quartermaster duties, packaging and
purchase, and equipment, while I worked on the training programme
for the boys.
Divergent Team
We
had one or more boys from Kendriya Vidyalayas, Sainik Schools,
Municipal Schools, Government Higher Secondary Schools, and, of
course, “Public” and private schools. With 22 schoolboys drawn
from such a wide catchment, and an open socio-economic
background, one might have expected frequent and intense friction.
But grown-up people and our leaders would do well to note that
conflicts of class and background, accusations of snobbery and
allegations of social ostracism or exclusiveness, are more likely to
flourish in the hothouse atmosphere of grown-up parliaments, for they
certainly did not flourish in the the open society of the first
Indian Schoolboys Garhwal Expedition 1973. I have never been on an
expedition, with such a divergent membership, several schoolmasters,
three Headmasters and 22 boys, and there was more affection and
mutual regard or less friction. Perhaps it was the influence of the
mountains and the pristine environment, but the entire expedition was
a successful example of national and socio-economic integration
effectively and work.
Some 100 miles beyond Chakrata lies the upper Tons watershed, with
two rivers, the Jamdar and Ruishar, meeting to form Tons at the
confluence; this Tons then meets the Yamuna, below Kalsi. It was to
the Kalsi that our party travelled in school buses, aptly named ARALI
1 and 2, after the Delhi ridge where the Air Force Central School is
located.
The boys and their headmasters began the trip well, with a night bath
in the river, and a quick rock climb up the buttressed pillars of the
old bridge, below the rock edict of Ashoka which proclaims the
message of Buddha. The pillars are made of hewn stone set in relief,
and the climb, though only a few dozen feet was rendered exciting by
the inexperience of the boys and the darkness all around.
The next morning we left early for Chakrata, where transport was
waiting to convey us to our road-head at Tiuni, beside the Tons, just
below its confluence with the Pabbar river which comes down from
Himachal Pradesh. Here the road ends, but a forest track continues to
Naitwar and on to Taluka, just below the high mountains of
Bandarpuch. This truck is not only jeep-able, but can also be
persuaded to take one tonners and three tonners, if one can find
sufficiently daring drivers, which we happily did.
Visit to
Har-ki-Dun
Naitwar
is a small but growing hill-town beside the rushing Tons, set amidst
vast hill ranges of pine forest, where the road from Chakrata Purola
and sub-divisional headquarters, also joins. Pine resin-tapping and
despatch
is the other major activity after lumbering and the hill trade from
high villages. Another 15 miles beyond by jeep, or on foot as we did,
lies the rest-house of Taluka, where we next halted, and where our
porters from the four villages of Datmir, Gangar, Panwari and Osla
joined us, of course, after much persuasion and at very high wages
for carrying the 100 odd loads of the expedition in 60-pound packs.
The boys and members carried their own rucksacks, not only for the
sake for the economy, but also as part of the training program.
One should undertake a fairly long approach march trek to ensure
gradually increasing fitness instead of racing into the higher hills,
and attempting high mountain climbs without an adequate
acclimatization period at lower elevations. The body attunes itself
to strenuous days of long marches, and once so adjusted, can take
great strains and high altitude climbs without untoward consequences.
To prolong our days at moderate elevations, it was decided to first
visit Har-ki-Dun, with a picturesque rest-house set atop an old,
grass-grown moraine, with huge boulders perched on it. These boulders
were to be the introduction of the boys to rick climbing, and Mr.
Gibson set about making all the boys climb them after the training
tips. Most of the boys climbed most of the boulders within two days,
and the party re-united here to take small daytime trips to the
Jamdar glacier and the Morinda Gad, which leads up to the Borasu Pass
over which lies Chitkul in the Bhapsa valley in Himachal Pradesh.
Her the training programme began in earnest, with the grown-ups,
particularly Pandey, Swadesh and Jain, an the two masters from Mayo
College, Dwarka and Romesh Mathur, taking over all the admin details
and the hard work of messing, planning, packing, re-packing and
porterage with the help of Gogi Sandhu, Darshan Singh and Sudhir
Singh.
Lake base Camp
An unbelievable profusion of flowers greeted us at Lake Base Camp,
with a whole field of the delicately perfumed Primula Involucrata,
the modest Primula Denticulata, anemones and buttercups, iris and
potentilla, androsace and fritillaria.
Gogi Sandhu, a farmer and thrice Krishi Panit, Jain, Swadesh, Sudhir
Sahi, Timky Daarshan Singh, a business executive and the Sherpas set
off and pitched Camps I and II along the true right of the glacier of
Bandarpunch and Black Peak, while Mr. Das and Mr. Dang, with the rest
of the boys pitched another camp called Camp I Left Bank, where Nima
Sherpa gave training in snow and rock climbing techniques to the
boys.
Growing schoolboys are generally very strong and tough, but lung
development and stamina resistance and durability in the face of long
exposure to cold, lack of fresh hot food, and rarefied air of high
altitudes, are qualities that develop around the twenties to their
maximum.
It is thus imprudent to allow or encourage such adolescent frames,
however athletic or tough-looking, to very high elevations for long
periods. They also require longer periods of acclimatization at
moderately high elevations before they are allowed to go above, say,
17,000 feet, above sea level.
In the case of our party of schoolboys, though they had been well
trained by the time they reached Camps I and II in rock and snow
climbing and rescue techniques, and in trekking and camping,
hill-walking, packing, ice-axe technique, they were not all
nutritionally the same background and there was a distinct
difference in stamina, endurance and constitutional resistance, which
variation had to be kept in mind.
Mr. Das and Mr. Dang decided to select the most durable and
technically effective four boys Mandhata, Pradyuman, Mandeep and
Bhoom Sigh, to accompany the first party attempt to establish Camp
III ridge of Black Peak. Gogi Sandhu and Sudhir Sahi, with two
sherpas, were to go with them. Swadesh and Jain were both fit, but
had to return to Lake Camp to bring up further supplies and organize
equipment with the help of Mr. Pandey Timky and Romesh, Mr. Das and
Mr. Dang, were to hold fort at Camp I Left Bank and then to climb the
summit and at Camp II respectively, giving support to the summiters.
The remaining boys, with Sherpa Lhakpa Tsering, who had climbed
Jaonli with the Doon School Expedition in 1966 led by Mr. Dang, moved
up along the glacier, training as they went, and four others, Dileep,
Sanjay Gandhi, Iqbal Singh and Sukhjit Singh, were selected to make
the second ascent of Black Peak.
Black peak is frequently climbed, but remains a strenuous and fairly
challenging 21,000-feet mountain. The weather, always unpredictable
in the high mountains which generate their own local storms, had been
harsh. There was snow almost every day above Camp II.
The first group attempted the long soft-snow and hard-ice
summit-ridge of Black Peak from Camp III, at 18,000 feet, but had to
turn back from nearly 20,000 feet. This we had expected, as ours was
a training expedition, and we were not committed to climbing to the
top. Mr. Das and Mr. Dang, with Gogi Sandhu, Romesh, Timky Darshan
Singh and some others, had stayed behind at Camp II, below the cliffs
over which lies the route to the Dhaundhar Kandi Pass leading to
Harsil. When the first party returned from Camp III, the boys had
completed all parts of the Basic Course mountaineering syllabus, but
for the ice and crampon routine. In those verdant and flower
festooned high valleys it is easy to forget aims and objects, and to
lose oneself in contemplation, in plant-collection, bird-watching and
wildlife photography, so it was natural for everyone to think of
descending. Timky Darshan Singh and Sudhir Sahi, who is with a public
sector undertaking, both picked another team and set off for Camp III
the very next morning. The sherpas were reluctant, but tagged along,
and in the end gave valuable help to these and other boys.
On the morning of May 12, the party set off from Camp III and
struggled up the ridge to the summit, encountering deep crevasses in
the hard ice of the summit ridge. We photographed them from a
neighbouring 18,000-foot peak through
telephoto lenses, as they, one after another, set foot on the Black
Peak crest.
The return was uneventful but instructive. I myself had to return
early, but the long days on the way back from the great heights are
the most tranquil and the most memorable. Terrain previously
difficult and dangerous seems easy. The flowers and the streams are
profuse and gentle. The alpine grasslands a blessing, and the
Himalaya in a friendly mood.
It was this face of the mountains which our boys most recall, though
the training and the exposure to the thrill of this great sport will
abide with them and with us much longer as we all grow older."
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