Gangotri Region. The north ridge of Gangotri I was climbed by Manzoor Ahmed and Bimal Chandra Goswami of Assam on May 18. A 13-member team of Himalaya’s Beckon from Calcutta set up Base Camp at 4510 meters on May 14 and Camps I, II and III on May 16, 19 and 21 on the ridge which connects Rudugaira with Gangotri I. From Camp IV leader Bivujit Mukhoty, Dharam-shaktu, Rajsekhar Ghosh and Purmal Singh climbed to the summit on May 24. This group helped to evacuate a Bombay expedition, one of whom had fallen to his death in a crevasse on Gangotri III. Three of this team of young climbers and a porter were caught in a storm near the summit. They sat out the night. Leader Khandar rushed down and suffered the fatal fall. Vaidya and Chitale contracted severe frostbitten hands and feet and had to be helped down. Kedarnath & Kedarnath Dome: A 35-man team of the Border Security Force was led by Commandant S.R Ahuja. Base Camp was placed at Tapovan on March 30. Nine climbed Kedar Dome on April 17. On April 22, Balbahadar Singh Negi, K.S. Rawat, Bhim Sain, Diwan Singh, Suresh Kumar and S. Thomas climbed Kedamath. Jogin I, III and P 19,500: leader Samit Chowdhury, Satyajit Basak, Khagen Bhattacharya, Goutam Mukherjee and HAPs Jai Singh, Sangram Singh and Sher Singh climbed Jogin III. On May 31, Satyajit Basak, Goutam Mukherjee, Jai Singh and Sher Singh climbed Jogin I while Chowdhury, Bhattacharya and Sangram Singh climbed P 19,500.—A 16-member team from the Institute of Mountaineering Exploration was led by Amulya Sen. They hoped to climb Rataban and Hathi. They set up Base Camp at 4420 meters on September 25. After struggling for two days from 5800-meter Camp II, they failed to find a route up either peak. However, after climbing for 5½ hours from Camp I, Jagadish Naskar and Ruben Roy Chowdhury climbed P 20,300 (6187 meters), southwest of Hathi. Ghori Parbat (6708 meters) lies between Rataban and we are unable to locate any peak of 6187 meters in that region.—An 11-member team was led by Apurba Chakraborty. They set up Base Camp at Vasuki Tal, Advance Base, Camps I, II and III (the latter at the base of P 6370) at 4900, 5100, 5410, 5600 and 5780 meters on or north of the Chaturangi Glacier on August 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27. Rock peak P 5970 (19,587 feet) was climbed via the southeast ridge on August 28 by Apurba Chakraborty, Dipak Kumar Bose, Parijat Chowdhury, Sunit Saha, Prodip Sarkar and porters Lal Bahadur, Bir Bahadur and Rudra Bahadur. The ascent was repeated the next day by Ranjan Bose, Sibnath Ghosh and Santi Kumar Roy. Snow peak P 6130 (20,112 feet) was climbed on August 29 by Chakraborty, Dipak Kumar Bose, Saha, Chowdhury, Sarkar and Lal Bahadur. P 6210 (20,374 feet) was climbed via the south ridge also on August 29 by Bose, Chowdhury and Lal Bahadur. The first two peaks were virgin; P 6210 had been climbed before.—An expedition led by Bibhas Das made two ascents above the Seta Glacier on the ridge between Kalindi and Chandra. On June 30, Bibhas Das, Swapan Banerjee, Basanti Bhattacharjee, Dham Singh and Raghubir Singh climbed to the col between P 20,224 (6164 meters) and P 19,800 (6035 meters). They followed the south ridge of P 20,224 to the summit. From the col they also climbed to the top of P 19,800. The latter peak had been climbed previously, but it had been reported as being P 20,224. The climbers feel that they actually made the first ascent of P 20,224.

Kamal K. Guha, Editor, Himavanta, India