Pk. 6,123m, first ascent, east ridge; Bidhan Parvat, ascent, southeast face. A 10-member expedition from Kolkata, led by Amitava Roy, planned to ascend of Devban (6,855m). The team reached base camp at Thaur Udiar (4,095m) in the Amritganga Valley on June 26 and established three camps up the Devban Glacier. From Camp 3 Susanta Basak, Arupam Das, and Roy made the first ascent of an unnamed peak of 6,123m by the east ridge. On the following day, from the same camp, Das and Sherpas Gyalgen, and Tashi climbed the southeast face of Bidhan Parvat (6,520m). They did not attempt Devban due to avalanche danger. [Bidhan Parvat was first climbed in 1937 by Frank Smythe on his famous Valley of the Flowers expedition. The second ascent came in 1968, when the mountain was unofficially named by a team from Bengal, in memory of Sir Bidhan Chandra Roy, former Chief Minister of Bengal. Although unendorsed, the name seems to have stuck—Ed.]

Harish Kapadia, Honorary Editor, The Himalayan Journal