Vintage Monday

~ An Article from "Express News Service", 1973 ~

" Young Climbers would like to try again

 

NEW DELHI, JUNE 20

Nineteen teenaged boys, drawn from various public schools and the "Not-so-exclusive" schools in North India, who returned to the Capital yesterday after an abortive attempt to climb Black Peak, a 21,000-foot high mountain in the Garhwal Himalayas, seem determined to go back climbing again.

Said 16-year old Mandip Singh, a studetn of Air Force Central School, Delhi, who went on the expedition disregarding the opposition of his anxious mother: "It was a fag plodding up to 17,500 feet. But in retrospect, there is nothing that I would not like to do again.

Praduman Singh, a 17-year-old youngster sporting a beard that he grew on the expedition, admitted that he would not have been able to climb that last stretch of 1500 feet that separated him from the summit. A student of Mayo College, Ajmer, Parduman Singh said he'd done rock-climbing and trekking before, and would like to go to the mountains whenever he got the opportunity.

Raj Kishore, a shy little 15-year-old student of Nagar Palika Higher Secondary School run by the NDMC, said he found the trekking and mountaineering fun all the way. Asked whether he would like to go on a similar expedition again, he grinned and nodded his head in affirmation.

The schoolboys' expedition to Black Peak was a failure only in a sense. Three old students of some schools which participated in the expedition reached the peak on June 12, two days after the party of three boys turned back at 19,500 feet in face of turning weather . They are Mr. Darshan Singh, an executive in a private firm, Mr Sudhir Sahi, an official in the Food Corporation of India, and Mr Gurpreet Singh.

Mr Darshan Singh said he had been on so many treks before, and he had also reached 21,000 feet in an earlier expedition. He had decided to join the youngsters to "get away from the stifling atmosphere of the city". "It was a pleasant change", he said modestly, and seemed reluctant to talk of his success.

In the expedition also were Mr Jack Gibson, a pioneer in Indian mountaineering. Mr Hari Dang, well-known mountaineer and AFCS principal, and Mr Shomi Das, Mayo COllege principal.

The 19 schoolboys, most of whom had never been beyond hill stations, left Delhi on May 23 for Harki Doon, North-West of Chakrata near the border of Himachal Pradesh. After a two-week impromptu training in rock climbing and trekking, they started on a 15-day march to Reshar Tal, a lake near the base of Black Peak. On the way, a small party of boys crossed a 15,000-foot high pass.

The Base Camp was set up at 12,800 feet, and three camps after that as a preparation for the final assault on the mountain. "All the boys reached Camp I, which was established at more than 13,00 feet," said Major H PS Ahluwalia, Everester and President of Delhi Mountaineering Association, under whose auspices the expedition was undertaken.

Thereafter, three boys started on the long toil up the mountain face, setting up Camps II and III, the latter at 17,500 feet. But the summit was deinied to them. Three boys who started on the final assault from Camp III  reached 19,500 feet, but were beaten back by deteriorating weather conditions.

Major Ahluwalia  said he planned to send many more such expeditions to the Himalayas in the coming years. "I will try to make mountaineering as a sport available tp as many as people as possible in the country. I would hate it to remain an exclusive preserve of the public school boy," he said.

Exepditions organized by schools and mountaineering associations, according to Mr Ahluwalia, were useful because not all students could afford to go to the three mountaineering institutes."