Shivling, East Pillar, and Bhagirathi II Tragedy. On May 7 ten of us, from various parts of the world, met in Delhi en route to the Gangotri. We were Georges Bettembourg, French, Greg Child and Rick White, Australians, Mervyn English, New Zealander, Stephen Sustad,* American, Colin Downer, Don Whillans and I, British, and Balwant Sandhu and Ratan Singh, Indians. We stayed at the new imposing Indian Mountaineering Foundation complex, conveniently situated near the airport. We took a bus to Uttarkashi, where Balwent is the Principal and Ratan the Chief Instructor at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM). They organized a camp of 20 young Indian mountaineers at our Base Camp, to have us impart concepts of alpine climbing and techniques to them. Because of this joint nature, Mr. H.C. Sarin, President of the IMF, and his committee allowed us to climb any peak in the Gangotri mountains not booked by other expeditions. From Uttarkashi we travelled by various buses and used local porters to bridge gaps in the bus route where the road had washed away to reach the holy settlement of Gangotri. In a day we then walked to Gaumukh, the Cow’s Mouth, the ice cave where the Ganges springs from the Gangotri Glacier. Another easy day’s walk brought us and 45 porters to Base Camp at Tapovan (14,775 feet). Shivling rose nearly 7000 feet above us with its fluted ice faces, steep granite buttresses and ice cap at 6543 meters (21,467 feet). For acclimatization, from May 18 to 31 we bouldered and climbed crags on the excellent granite within two miles of Base Camp. Several routes of two and three pitches up F9 cracks were ascended with members of the NIM course, who arrived at Base Camp three days after us. We split into three groups to trek up the Chaturangi, Gangotri and Meru Glaciers. A camp was established at the foot of the unclimbed east pillar of Shivling at 17,500 feet on May 31, but four inches of snow fell and we returned to Base Camp. On June 3 Child, Bettembourg, White and ascended to the camp with ten days’ food. Thirteen days later, on June 15, we came over the summit and traversed down the northern first-ascent route. The beautiful dawn and our elation were rewards for the hard climbing and much hauling of food and gear up the steep walls of granite, broken mixed rock and snow and traversing around and over gendarmes on long exposed ridges. Although the vertical height was only 4000 feet, we had climbed sixty rope-lengths in all. A third of these were along very exposed and sometimes dangerous arêtes of snowed-up rock linking the steep buttresses of this varied route. The nature of the ground called for big-wall tackle, alpine gear and full Himalayan clothing, in other words a lot of weight which slowed progress, as did considerable falls of snow on most days of the climb. It is debatable whether this type of route is worth all the pack hauling, as only four or five pitches could be achieved in a day. There were, in our favour, reasonable bivouac sites for our two Salewa bivy tents, though we rarely managed to find a platform where both could fit. In fact, they were always in part drooping down where the ground sheets overhung the drop below. Our descent was speeded by finding fixed rope left by previous Indian and Japanese parties and by more additions placed by a party from our own camp. We used seven 150-foot ropes on the pillar, four for climbing, two for hauling and one spare, all of which were brought off. [The next section was written by Mervyn English on the attempt on the first-ascent route on Shivling.] On June 1 Downer, Sustad, Whillans, Balwant Sandu, Ratan Singh and I left Base Camp for the Meru Glacier. On June 2 we placed a camp at 18,800 feet. We intended to push, lightweight, for the summit up the northern side, but sickness and fresh snow prevented this. Some rope was fixed and further snowfalls dictated a retreat to Base Camp, where we heard of the accident to the Indian climbers on Bhagirathi II. English, Sustad and Ratan Singh set off immediately and were involved in the rescue and recovery of the two dead climbers. Several days later we regained our camp on Shivling. We climbed the rest of the rock ridge and the next day intended to attempt the 500-foot ice cliff below the col between the main and west summits. Unfortunately, high winds in the night destroyed the tent Downer and I were in. We all returned to camp at 18,800 feet. Two days later, on June 14, we climbed the ice cliff to a point 300 feet below the summit. Due to high winds, we could not make the last few feet.—M.E. [Sanjeev Saith describes the accident on Bhagirathi II.] P.M. Das, Nirmal Sah, Praturiam Singh, A.K. Roy, Instructor Bisht and I went to the Bhagirathi valley on June 1. We crossed the Gangotri Glacier, moved past Nandanban, traversing the northern flank of Bhagirathi II, and camped at 16,500 feet. On June 2 we ferried loads and reconnoitered for a suitable camp site for our assault on Bhagirathi I (6512 meters, 21,365 feet). June 3 was meant to be used for occupying the camp at 18,700 feet but three members were urged to go for the peak from the lower camp. They continued up the east face and after ten hours reached the summit at six P.M. While descending, they had a fall of 500 feet. Nirmal Sah died on the spot and Praturiam Singh and P.M. Das were injured. Though their shouts were heard by us other three at the 18,700-foot camp, inclement weather delayed the search until the morning. We managed to get the injured to camp, where Praturiam died. Das was evacuated to Base Camp with frostbite injuries.—S.S. [Scott concludes.] On returning to Base Camp from the East Pillar, we were too emaciated to do any more climbing. We walked out in bad weather on June 19, mistaking this for the onset of the monsoon, which arrived a week later.

Douglas Scott, Alpine Climbing Group

* Recipient of an American Alpine Club Climbing Fellowship grant.