Peaks in Himachal Pradesh. Indian climbers continued to make many ascents. Mulkila 4 (M4) was climbed by an expedition from Calcutta led by Goutam Dutta. On August 22, Dutta and R.S. Negi got to the summit (6517 meters, 21,380 feet). This was probably the first ascent of the peak by Indians. On the 24th, Dutta and A.N. Sapru climbed M5 (6401 meters, 21,000 feet). Another Calcutta expedition was led by Amulya Sen. Although they had permission for M6 and M7, they climbed two other peaks. Sekhar Dutta Chowdhury, Tarak Ranjan Ghosh and Tapas Kumar Roy climbed M10 (5852 meters, 19,200 feet) on July 16. Apurba Chakraborty, Dipak Bose, Parijat Chowdhury and Prodip Sarkar reached the summit of M2 (5832 meters, 19,134 feet). M1 (5730 meters, 18,800 feet) was climbed on September 3 by Ranjit Basumatari, Naren Jha, Buddhadeb Khaklari and Satyendra Singh although they had originally hoped to climb M4. CB46 or Akela Kila (6005 meters, 19,700 feet) was ascended by climbers from Calcutta led by Sandip Dey. On August 21, Snehasish and Susanta Bhattarcharjee with Tek and Alam Chand reached the summit from Camp IV. In mid September, Savumoy Ghosh, Bijoy Ghale and Debashish Nath climbed CB 48 (5996 meters, 19,672 feet) from the Kulti Glacier. Menthosa (6443 meters, 21,140 feet) above the Miyar Nala was climbed by an expedition from Bombay led by Ajay Tasker. Base Camp was at 4400 feet and there were three high ones (Camp III at 5750 meters). Tasker, Vinay Hegde and V. Shankar climbed to the summit in ten hours on August 21. They followed the first-ascent route from the southwest. This, too, was probably a first ascent by Indians.

Kamal K. Guha, Editor, Himavanta, India