In all her glory..

In all her glory.., originally uploaded by The Wandering Hermit.

nyone who's ever witnessed the sun set or rise over mountains can attest that during these daily occurances the mountains are at their most beautiful.. The constant shifting in the intensity of the light makes these times entrancing as you feverishly wish that you can capture it all on film (though film can never compare to actually being there and cannot truely convey the magnificance totally still its the next best thing)..

Also another reason I click a lot of such shots is that while climbing in the Garhwal and Kumaon Himal it is best to get the major climbing done when the snow is relatively hard and compact after a nights freeze as within an hour of the sun touching the slopes, the snow conditions start to deteriorate almost instantly and by noon its almost slush.

Its this constant freeze and melting which also make rockfall a constant danger as the snow binding these rocks becomes elastic and all of a sudden the rocks break loose when least expected.

These two reasons make climbing here quite a serious proposition and as a result the standard grade of difficulty on climbs like the Sharks Fins (Meru Central seen here) or the South Pillar of Changabang & Bhagirathi's West Buttress , South Face of Purbi Dunagiri (Still unclimbed) are amongst the highest that mountaineers have tackled making them some of the hardest technical Big Wall climbs in the world today.
Out of 30 expeditions only 2 have managed to climb the Shark's Fin and that too not all the way having had to detour from the route to reach the peak.

Shiva's Trident

Shiva's Trident, originally uploaded by The Wandering Hermit.

Sunset on Trisul during the Roopkund Trek. (View Large)

Trisul I 7120 mtrs(30°18′36″N 79°46′12″E /30.31, 79.77)

Trisul II 6690mtrs(30°17′24″N 79°46′12″E / 30.29, 79.77)

Trisul III 6008mtrs (30°15′00″N 79°46′12″E / 30.25, 79.77) ;

In the Annals of Himalayan Climbing History Trisul plays an important part as it was one of the earliest peaks in the Himalayas to be submitted in 1907
Early Climbing History & First Ascent:
The legendary Dr. T. G. Longstaff made the first climbing reconnaissance of Trisul, in September 1905, focusing on the western and southern sides.
In 1907 The Alpine Club as part of their Golden Jubliee Celebrations were refused permission to climb Everest so attention shifted to Trishul. A.L. Mumm (a wealthy publisher)& guaranteed to meet all expenses.

The party was
A. L. Mumm,with his usual guide Moritz Inderbinnen
Charles Bruce with 9 Gorkhas from the Gorkha Rifles. ( General Bruce would be the expedition leader of the 1922 and 1924 Everest expedition)

Dr. Tom Langstaff with his guides, The Two Bocherel Brothers Alex and Henri. (The Canadian climber and Doctor who was the chief medical officer of the 1922 Everest Expedition)
{It was standard practice to climb with Swiss Alpine Guides in those days, except for Dr A.M Kellas who climbed with Sherpas, mostly all early explorers brought their own guides from Europe}
Bottled Oxygen was used for the first time in Himalayan Conditions manufactured by Seibb & Gormann who would later supply the early Everest Expeditions of 1922 and 1924.

The Climb:
From a camp at about 17,500 ft. Longstaff, The Bocherel Brothers, and Kabir one of the Gorkha soldiers reached the top, a fine feat of mountaineering considering that they climbed nearly 6,000 ft in just a day in fine weather.
It remained the highest peak to be climbed until the next 25 years till the first ascent of KAMET in 1931 by Frank Symthe's team.

From an Indian Mountaineering point of view Trisul was the first major peak to be climbed by an Indian Team with Indian Climbers in 1951 when Gurdial Singh ( a teacher at Doon School) with Roy Greenwood(an Englishman) & Sherpa Dawa Thondupreached the summit.

The only demonstration of joy was their homage to Mother Earth, they bent their heads low and pointed their feet skywards (a Sheeshasana or headstand) on the summit of Trishul! !!!
Gurdials Singh's Summit Photograph

Nanda Devi : The Bliss-Giving Goddess.

Nanda Devi : The Bliss-Giving Goddess., originally uploaded by The Wandering Hermit.

Sunset on the magnificient and awe inspiring Nanda Devi East (7,434 m (24,390 ft))& Nanda Devi Main Peaks (7,816 mtrs (25,643 ft) Ranked 23rd highest).
Nanda Devi, the Himalayan peak known as the Goddess for her beauty and her wrath, is a fickle mistress. She has stolen other men's lives and sent a woman named after her to her grave.
She is also a shy goddess who is guarded by one of the most formidable mountain walls anywhere in the Himalayas.

The main summit stands guarded by a barrier ring comprising some of the highest mountains in the Indian Himalayas (one of which is Nanda Devi East), twelve of which exceed 6,400 m (21,000 ft) in height, further elevating its sacred status as the daughter of the Himalaya in local myth and folklore. The interior of this almost insurmountable ring is known as the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, and is protected as the Nanda Devi National Park.

Nanda Devi East lies on the eastern edge of the ring (and of the Park), at the border of Chamoli, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar districts.


Exploration and climbing history


The ascent of Nanda Devi necessitated fifty years of arduous exploration in search of a passage into the Sanctuary. The outlet is the Rishi Gorge, a deep, narrow canyon which is very difficult to traverse safely, and is the biggest hindrance to entering the Sanctuary; any other route involves difficult passes, the lowest of which is 5,180 m (16,990 ft).
Early Explorations

During its heyday, Nanda Devi stood as the highest peak in the British Empire and drew the interest of mountaineers from the entire western world. As part of their search for trade routes to Tibet, the British also began as early as 1830 to explore the upper reaches of the High Himalayas, with the region around Nanda Devi providing the most attractive access to the “hermit” kingdom. G.W. Traill, the first commissioner of the recently acquired Garhwal and Kumaon districts (ceded by the Gurkhas to the British in 1815), crossed Pindari Glacier in search of a shortcut to Milam in the north. In the process he was snow blinded, this the local people attributed to the wrath of the Goddess for invading her sanctuary

In 1883, W.W. Graham led a small but adventurous team in search of a path up the Rishi Ganga to the foot of Nanda Devi. Encountering all manners of obstacles including steep rugged terrain and incessant snow and rain, the party also portered much of their supplies themselves, reaching beyond Dharansi Pass before turning back.

In 1905 and 1907, T.G. Longstaff resumed Graham’s efforts, exploring the eastern and western approaches to Nanda Devi respectively. In the later mission, Longstaff’s team retraced Graham’s path, ascending Trisul (23,406ft), but did not attempt another foray into the upper Rishi.

Twenty years later, Longstaff returned and with Hugh Ruttledge sought out the elusive access route to no avail.Ruttledgeas Deputy Commissioner for Almora (Leader of two attempts on Mt. Everest in the 1930's) attempted to reach the peak three times in the 1930s and failed each time. In a letter to The Times he wrote that 'Nanda Devi imposes on her votaries an admission test as yet beyond their skill and endurance', adding that gaining entry to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary alone was more difficult than reaching the North Pole.

In 1934, the British explorers Eric Shipton and H.W. Tilman, with three Sherpa companions, Angtharkay, Pasang, and Kusang, finally discovered a way through the Rishi Gorge into the Sanctuary.

When the mountain was later climbed in 1936 by a British-American expedition, it became the highest peak climbed by man until the 1950 ascent of Annapurna, 8,091 metres (26,545 ft)by the French . (However higher non-summit elevations had already been reached by the British on Mount Everest in the 1920s.)
It also involved steeper and more sustained terrain than had been previously attempted at such a high altitude The expedition climbed the south ridge, also known as the Coxcomb Ridge, which leads relatively directly to the main summit.
The summit pair were H.W. Tilman and Noel Odell; Charles Houston was to be in place of Tilman, but he contracted severe food poisoning. Noted mountaineer and mountain writer H. Adams Carter was also on the expedition, which was notable for its small scale and lightweight ethic: it included only seven climbers, and used no fixed ropes, nor any Sherpa support above 6,200 m (20,300 ft). Eric Shipton, who was not involved in the climb itself, called it "the finest mountaineering achievement ever performed in the Himalaya."

After abortive attempts by Indian expeditions in 1957 and 1961, the second ascent of Nanda Devi was accomplished by an Indian team led by N. Kumar in 1964, following the Coxcomb route.

Nuclear Controversy
Attempts were made from 1965 to 1968 by the CIA to place a plutonium-powered listening device high on Nanda Devi, to monitor possible Chinese nuclear activity in Tibet, but the device was lost in an avalanche. (Recent reports of samples taken from the sources of Ghori Ganga by Pete Takeda indicate that radiation traces from this device have been discovered in sediment below the mountain.) The actual data is not conclusive, however, but the absence of Pu-238 (the isotope that powered the device) in the sample proves that any Pu present could not have come from the device. As a result of this activity, the Sanctuary was closed to climbing by foreign expeditions during much of the 1960s, and was not re-opened until 1974.

A difficult new route, the northwest buttress, was climbed by a thirteen-person team in 1976. Three Americans, John Roskelley, Jim States and Lou Reichardt, summitted on September 1. The expedition was co-led by Louis Reichardt, H. Adams Carter (who was on the 1936 climb) and Willi Unsoeld, (along with Tom Hornbein, he was the first to traverse Mt. Everest and climbing the West Ridge and descending the South Col route during the 1963 Everest Expedition) Unsoeld's daughter, Nanda Devi Unsoeld, who was named after the peak, died on this expedition due to Altitude sickness at around 24,000. (This expedition remains a controversial one in which climbers approached the mountain with huge ego's and instead of climbing together often resorted to blatant one upmanship , a trend which is sadly still very prevalent amongst the professional climbers of today.)

In 1981, the first women to stand on the summit were part of an Indian led expedition.

Nanda Devi East

Nanda Devi East was first climbed in 1939 by a four-member Polish expedition led by Adam Karpinski. They climbed the south ridge, from Longstaff Col; this is still the standard route on the peak. The summit party were J. Klarner and J. Bujak Karpinski and Stefan Bernardzikiewicz died later in an attempt on nearby Trishuli.

The first attempt to traverse the ridge between the main summit and Nanda Devi East resulted in the death of two members of a French expedition in 1951. Team leader Roger Duplat and Gilbert Vignes disappeared on the ridge somewhere below the main summit
Tenzing Norgay was in a support team on this expedition; he and Louis Dubost climbed Nanda Devi East to look for the missing pair. Some years later Tenzing was asked what was the most difficult climb he ever did, expecting him to say Mount Everest; he surprised his interlocutors by saying Nanda Devi East.

The standard approach to the south ridge route, from the Milam Valley to the east, passes through Lawan Glacier via Lawan Gad and thence to Longstaff Col. The trek to base camp goes through the villages of Munsiyari, Lilam, Bogudiar, Martoli, Nasanpatti, and Bhadeligwar. An alternate route climbs the southwest face, from a base camp inside the Sanctuary.

Partial timeline

* 1934: First entry into the inner Sanctuary by Eric Shipton and H.W. Tilman
* 1936: The first ascent of Nanda Devi by Odell and Tilman.
* 1939: First ascent of Nanda Devi East by Klarner, Bujak.
* 1951: Attempted traverse and death of Duplat and Vignes. Second ascent of Nanda Devi East.
* 1964: Second ascent of Nanda Devi by Indian team led by N. Kumar.
* 196?: Covert ascent by Indo-American expedition?
* 1975: A 13-member Indo-French expedition led by Y. Pollet-Villard including Coudray, Renault, Sandhu, and Chand ascend climbed both Nanda Devi and Nanda Devi East but failed to accomplish the traverse of the connecting ridge.

* 1976: A 21-member Indo-Japanese team approaches the south ridges of main peak and Nanda Devi East simultaneously, and achieves the first traverse, going from Nanda Devi East to the main summit.

* 1981: An Indian Army expedition attempts both main and East peaks simultaneously. The southwest face of Nanda Devi East is climbed for the first time, but both Premjit Lal and Phu Dorjee are killed in the descent. Three others – Daya Chand, Ram Singh, and Lakha Singh – also fall to their deaths, leading to the highest ever number of casualties on the mountain.


After the re-opening of the Sanctuary in 1974 to foreign climbers, trekkers, and locals, the fragile ecosystem was soon compromised by firewood cutting, garbage, and grazing. Serious environmental problems were noted as early as 1977, and the sanctuary was closed in 1983.

Currently, Nanda Devi forms the core of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (which includes Nanda Devi National Park), declared by the Indian government in 1982. In 1988, Nanda Devi National Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, "of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humankind."

The entire sanctuary, and hence the main summit (and interior approaches to the nearby peaks) are off-limits to locals and to climbing expeditions. An exception was made in 1993 for a 40-member team from the Garhwal Rifles Regiment of the Indian Army to check the state of recovery and remove garbage left by prior expeditions.
The expedition also successfully scaled the peak. Nanda Devi East remains open from the east side, leading to the standard south ridge route.

The Fortress of Nanda

Nanda Kot Seen from Chakori, originally uploaded by The Wandering Hermit.

Elevation 6,861 m (22,510 ft)
Location Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand,
Range Kumaun Himalaya
Prominence 1,592 m (5,223 ft)
Coordinates 30°16′54″N, 80°04′06″E[1]
First ascent 1936 by Y. Hotta
Easiest route Lawan Valley

Nanda Kot (Hindi-नन्दा कोट) is located in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state in India. It lies in the Kumaon Himalaya, just outside of the ring of peaks enclosing the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, 15 kilometres (9 mi) southeast of Nanda Devi itself. The name Nanda Kot literally means "Nanda's Fortress" and refers to the abode of one of the sacred forms of the Hindu Goddess Parvati who in legend has made her sanctuary amongst the ring of lofty mountains in the region.

Nanda Kot is connected to the Sanctuary wall by a high pass known as the Pindari Kanda, 5,269 m (17,287 ft). This pass, Nanda Kot itself, and the ridge proceeding south from the peak together form the divide between the Pindar and Ghori Ganga River valleys, with Dana Dhura Pass connecting the two sides. The Kaphni (or Kafani), Pindar, Lawan, and Shalang Glaciers drain the south, west, north, and east sides of the peak respectively.

Climbing History: The first attempt to climb Nanda Kot was made in 1905 by T.G. Longstaff, who proceeded by way of the Lawan Valley and Lawan Glacier. The first successful ascent of the summit came in 1936 by a Japanese team led by Y. Hotta. A new route involving a direct ascent of the south face was successfully undertaken by a British expedition led by Martin Moran in 1995. Mountaineering expeditions to Nanda Kot today typically follow the route through Loharkhet, Dhakuri Pass, Khati Village to Dwali base camp.

Nanda Devi/Nanda Kot Nuclear Controversy:
During 1965-1968 there was series of seven mountaineering expeditions — four to Nanda Devi and three to Nanda Kot – as part of the most exotic and hazardous intelligence operations of the cold war, backed by the CIA. During this most unusual mountaineering venture n 1965, a covert mission was launched by an Indo-American team with the goal of installing a surveillance device on the top of Nanda Devi mountain to monitor Chinese nuclear and missile activity in Tibet. Shortly after delivery to the mountain, the thermonuclear generator designed to supply power to the sensor was lost during a storm and threatened to become a source of radioactive contamination to the area. Following upon at least three futile attempts between 1966-1968 to locate and recover the lost apparatus, it is said that in 1968 a similar device placed only the year before on Nanda Kot was dismantled. After more than a decade of secrecy, this story hit the Indian news media in 1978. There is still debate over these expeditions and whether any remnants of the radioactive materials remain in the vicinity of Nanda Kot to this day.
The Nanda Devi Sanctuary remains closed to visitors ever since, on "ecological grounds" as per the official version.

India team was led by M.S. Kohli (leader of the successful 1965 Everest Expedition) and included Sonam Gyatso, Harish Rawat, Sonam Wangyal and G.S. Bhangu – all Everesters. The Americans were represented by Lute Jerstad , Tom frost, Robert Schaller, Barry Corbet and a Barry Prather (Most were members of the 1963 Everest Expedtion)

Zanskar Landscape

Zanskar Landscape, originally uploaded by The Wandering Hermit.

Constantly shifting Cloud Shadows reveal the Myriad colors of the Zanskar Valley as a half frozen Zanskar River meanders by..

Across The Changthang 2

A group of Bactrian camels across the Changthang.

These twin humped camels of the domesticated variety are found all over the Changthang and also in Ladakh from Nubra Valley onwards.

They are different then their wild cousins who are now only found in the Gobi Desert and less than 700 are said to be alive making them one of the most endangered species in the world.
The wild Bactrian camel has a special place in evolutionary history. The herds remaining in China and Mongolia are the remnants of herds which crossed from North America on the Bering Strait land bridge 3-4 million years ago. Some Bactrian camels were domesticated 4,000 years ago, but the wild Bactrian camels in the Gashun Gobi (Lop Nur) area, and Mongolia avoided domestication and are now genetically different from the domestic Bactrian camels. Moreover, research has shown that in their embryonic stage, one-humped camels have a small second hump that does not develop further. This suggests that the ancestors of all camels on earth looked like the wild Bactrian camels of today.

The Bactrian (two-humped) camel is adapted to arid plains and hills where water sources are few and vegetation is sparse. Shrubs constitute its main source of food. Herds of these wild camels move widely, their distribution being linked to water. The animals tend to concentrate in and around mountains, because most springs are there and snow on the slopes may provide the only moisture in winter. Concentrations of up to 100 camels occur near the mountains, but most herds contain 2 - 15 members



Wild and domestic Bactrian camels readily interbreed, but physically they are quite different. The wild camels have a sandy, gray-brown rather than a predominantly dark brown coat; and their body form is small and slender, rather than large and bulky like that of the domestic Bactrian camel (The Mongolians call the wild camel "havtagai", which means "flat."). The most important difference, however, is in the humps. The humps of a wild camel are small and pyramid-shaped, with a round base and a pointed end. The humps of a domestic camel are distinctively large and irregular.

*** Approximately 2.5 million domestic Bactrian camels occur in Central Asia

In recent years scientists have been taking keen interest in this species to study their biological and evolutionary make up as they survive in the most harshest of terrains, where there is little or no water, are not effected by viruses like other 4 hoofed species and often are not susceptible to extreme temperature differences. In Winter when there is no water these camels survive by eating snow along with the shrubs they can dig up given their cloven hooves

Mystical Light in Zanskar

Mystical Light in Zanskar, originally uploaded by The Wandering Hermit.

The Old Zangla Castle, Zanskar Ladakh

.The old castle now in ruins except for a small chapel and nearby nunnery , it sits on a precarious aerie overlooking the valley below and offers some spectacular views on the surrounding countryside. Sometimes it seems that it has become as much a part of the rocks on which it stands. (there are around 34 Chortens around this castle spread all over the route to the top)

Until 1989, Zangla had its own ruler but for more than a century prior to that the king had held only a nominal title, his lineage was traced back to when the royal lineage in Zanskar was split. One side of the family ruled from Padum(the old capital some 35 kms away), and the other from Zangla

Both factions were able to reach an accord which allowed the King of Zangla to retain a nominal rule over the nearby villages of Honia and Chazar, and the villages of Hanumil, Pidmu and Pishu on the far side of the valley.

The head monk at Spitok is related to this family, and also administrators the Zangla monastery, which is situated in the nearby village of Tsa-zar & houses some exquisite frescos dating from the 16th century and some refurbished in the 18th century . The monastery is run my monks of the Gelugpa sect. This village lies mid-way between Thongde (Stongdey) and Zangla.