“Nothing needs to be impossible for you. After all man is six feet taller than the mountain he climbs. Only the will resolute has to be there” — J. B. Auden
Gangotri III , long exposure shot at twilight with star trails.
Taken during the trek to Auden's Col, which connects the Bhilganga Valley and Rudguira valley in the Garhwal Himal, Uttarakhand India.
The Col is approachable from Gangotri (which makes an ideal starting point) and one can trek up to Kedarnath from Auden's Col travelling via the Khatling glacier's lateral moraine this joining the two holy spots of Hindu Pilgrimage..(The route from the north is fairly easy but from the south it is decidedly tricky and is only meant for people who have some experience in glacier travel and rudimentary mountaineering skills as a lot of the terrain is usually snowed up)
The Col is named after Dr. J.B. Auden (who was the elder brother of the poet & playwright W.H. Auden (who dedicated his play : The Ascent of F6 to him)
He joined the Geological Survey of India and had traveled widely in many parts of the Himalaya and the Karakoram.
In October 1935 he was in the Gangotri area of Garhwal with Dr. D.C. Macdonald and three Sherpas.
He returned to the area in 1939 in the company of two porters from Harsil hamlet, he crossed a pass at the head of the Rudugaira valley to the Bhilaganga valley in the south. This is now known as ‘Auden’s Col’ and is not often repeated. , this crossing was at the termination of two months of traveling light, living primitively in tents weighing three kilograms.
The north side of this col was relatively easy-going, but the south side presented some difficulties in crossing the pinnacled ice.
He also explored the Jadh Ganga, Mana Gad and the Lamkhaga valleys on the same trip.
Auden's Other Himalayan Journey’s
•In July 1933 Auden with Captain C.E.C. Gregory completed the survey of the Biafo glacier in Pakistan
•Then in 1934 he was in Nepal to study the effects of the great earthquake which caused havoc in Bihar-Nepal on l5January 1934. With D.N. Wadia, Dr.J.A. Dunn and A.M.N. Ghosh, he traversed large areas of Nepal and published an authentic record of his travels in the Himalayan Ranges.
•Auden’s most well-known trip was to the Shaksgam valley (now in China) in 1937. This was in the company of Eric Shipton, H.W. Tilman and M.A. Spender,( brother of another famous poet). Shipton makes detailed references to their journey in his autobiography while Auden recorded the geological results of the trip including producing the most definitive maps of the enormous Snow Lake region which are still in use today.
Dr. Auden was an Original Member of The Mountain Club of India (1927) which founded the Himalayan Club.
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