Gyagar, Spiti. We made the first ascent of remote Gyagar (6400 meters, 20,998 feet), which lies near the junction of Tibet, Ladakh and Spiti. With 10 yaks, Ramkrishna Rao, Dolphy D’Mello, Vasant Dalvi, Shridhar Vaishampayam, high-altitude porter Tikamram Thakur, cook Jagdish Thakur and I made a grueling nine-day approach. We went over Zingu Top (4150 meters), Sisbang Top (5060 meters) Lalung Dagda, Sherula, crossed the Lingti River at Phipuk, went over Kulia (5880 meters) and Chaksachhala (5260 meters) and back down to the Lingti at 4280 meters. We went upstream and established Base Camp at 4500 meters at the junction of the Lingti and Gyagar Nala. We moved north up the nala to place Advance Base at 5000 meters on June 29. On July 1, all seven of us climbed Gyagar by its south ridge. The return to Kaza took us until July 12.

Dhiren Pania, Paramount Trekkers, India