The Silver Mountain

Mt Dunagiri at Night.

At 7066 mtrs. It makes the magic +7000mtrs club and for this reason is quite a popular climbing destination (that is not to say that its easy).

Dunagiri was first climbed on July 5, 1939 by the Swiss climbers André Roch, F. Steuri, and D. Zogg, via the southwest ridge as part of their first Garhwal expedition sponsored by the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research(2 more would follow in later years spanning the War and Andre Roch traveled on all three

This expedition would bag some notable climbs in the Uttarakhand area including Exploration of the Ramani glacier basic, first ascent of Dunagiri (7066 m), Rataban (Bloody Arrow) (6156 m), Ghori Parbat (6714 m). Last but not the least there was a notable attempt on Chaukhamba (7138 m).The main duty of the expedition was map making and in this they created a map on a scale of 1:150,000, is centered on Nanda Devi is still used due to its accuracy.

The Swiss returned to the Garhwal once again in 1947 & 1950 to complete the work started by this expedition and it remains one of the most successful ones ever to have left Switzerland (not to take anything away from their laudable 1952 Everest Expeditions of which Roche was part) & their later success on Lhotse.)
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There is also the fascinating story of Roche giving his compass on his last expedition to a Hindu Sadhu Baba he met living in a cave near Gangotri with the instructions to give the compass to the next person who came climbing in the region.. the compass changed hands 7 times and finally ended up in the possession of Harish Kapadia (The noted Indian Explorer and Mountaineer where it remains).

In 1975, Joe Tasker and Dick Renshaw drove a ramshackle van from the UK to Delhi and embarked on a notable climb which quickly became the stuff of lore in mountain climbing circles due to their choice of route and the fact that they climbed alpine style without a big expedition (which were the norm in the 70-'s)

The mountain they chose was DUNAGIRI and they climbed a particularly difficult route on the southeast buttress in the process setting a significant milestone for alpine-style climbing in the Himalayas.

(Dick Renshaw was also a team member alongwith Chris Bonnington of Peter Broadman & Joe Tasker on their 1986 Everest Pinnacles Expedition where he suffered a minor heart attack and thus had to return home , later both Broadman & Tasker would be lost somewhere high up on the mountains first pinnacle).

Shivas Matted Locks.

Shiva's Matted Locks., originally uploaded by The Wandering Hermit.

Shiva's statue as the Mahayogi on the banks of the Ganga in the night with Orion shining bright.

Rishikesh: Is named after the Matted Locks of Shiva (thus he is also known as Jatadhari as per Hindu Myths he used these locks of hair (Jata) to dissipate the force of Ganges as it descended to the Earth from the heavens o to make whole earth pious, fertile and wash out the sins of humans. For Hindus in India, the Ganga is not just a river but a mother, a goddess, a tradition, a culture and much more. Another name for Shiva in connection with the Ganga is Gaṅgādhara ("Bearer of the river Gaṅgā"))

Rishikesh is where the now fully formed Ganga first emerges from the embrace of the Himalayan Mountains and meets the Great Gangetic Plains (The Terai). The young bubbling river gives way to the meandering river which irrigates most of the Northern Indian Plains all the way to its eventual drainage almost 2500 kms away in the Bay of Bengal

The Story of the descent of Ganga

Legends associated with the river Ganga