From: "David Mayadas" Date: Wed Nov 27, 2002 8:22am Subject: Pindari Glacier Expedition 1967 Sohal, I documented my experience of the 1997 Pindari Glacier expedition in a single sitting and 35 years too late! I apologise in advance for the grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. Cheers David One of the highlights of my life was sharing a very unique experience with my Sherwoodian colleagues by participating in the Pindari Glacier trip in May 1967. This event occurred 35 years ago and is my faded account of some of the events on this trip. I remember my pals, the beautiful scenery and some events but I fail to recall our conversations over a meal and the fire side chats.I also fail to remember some conversations which I would have had with my peers during the long trek- I guess we probably did not say to much to each other as mostly we were gasping for breath to make that next step up each steep and winding path. My peers and I were absolutely thrilled to be part of a select group of senior Sherwood boys to participate in Sherwood's bi-annual Pindari Glacier expedition in 1967. The list of 10 boys had to be drawn a couple of months prior to the expedition so that we had sufficient time to obtain and maintain a high level of fitness for the long march to Pindari Glacier and back. To keep our fitness levels high we all went on long walks (once or twice to China or Cheena Peak), a bit of running and plenty of exercise. I do not think any of us realised how difficult some parts of the journey would become. Needless to say we were already fit and strapping young lads which was one reason for us becoming the "chosen ones". Another reason for being selected was that we all got on very well with each other, were representative of all houses, and we were also considered to be smarter than the average boy. I must have been extremely fit because I was certainly not selected for my academic prowess as in those days I routinely made it to the near bottom of my class in just about every subject - but still Johnny and Thappa must have see some spark of intelligence in my eyes! I can recall the names of almost all boys who were chosen.They were: Ashok Jaggi (Class 9, good friend of mine and on one occasion I threw my hockey stick at him in anger!), Prem Nath Dhawan (Class 10, good hockey player and a good sense of humour), Deepak Rana (Class 10, good mountaineer and I think was the most senior and experienced boy in the group, to this day Deepak treks and hunts in Nepal), Ian Gill (Class 10, solid and strong and a good guy), Dalip Tahil (Class 9, a best friend of mine and both our sisters were at All Saints, good all rounder), myself (Class 9, I was called Maya, had a brother John 2 years junior and my mother Moira was matron in top school in 1967 & 1968, I generally did quite well in all sports, was a dunda head in class!), Paul Sherriff (Class 10, a very nice boy, sister Ruth in All Saints, a very strong walker), and Mohit Singha (Class 9, a very quiet boy and karate expert, was he not from the Andaman Islands?). There also was Tyagi (Class 9, very bright academically and good at sports as well) and one other lad whose name eludes me (I think he was a Nepalese national). A photograph taken in front of the school Chapel prior to our departure from Sherwood is attached (SherwoodPindariGlacierCrew) and shows the boys in the order listed above, left to right. Of course, we had two fantastic mountaineers and organisers with us, our PE instructors, Malcolm "Johnny" Johnson and Mr Thappa. The entire school attended Chapel on the morning of our departure to pray for our safe return. Photographs were then taken in front of the School Chapel and then off we went to Malli Tal to board a bus which was already loaded up with tents and supplies, to take us deep and down into the Himalayas towards Nanda Devi (you can see Nanda Devi in the distance from Dorothy's seat). It was almost a full days bus trip to get to our final bus destination, a tiny village (whose name eludes me) which was about 7 days walk from Pindari Glacier and situated 3000ft above sea level (it was all up from there!). Pindari itself is located below Nanda Devi, at around 26,000ft is amongst the tallest of mountains on earth. Sherwood I recall is about 6000ft above sea level. During the bus journey, Dalip Tahil started to catch the dreaded flu (perhaps he knew about his impending illness before we left Sherwood) and when we disembarked for our long march, Dalip's condition appeared to be worsening. A decision was made, much to Dalip's dismay, to repatriate him back to Sherwood. So back to school Dalip went, in the bus all by himself. On our return to Sherwood we discovered that Dalip had entered the school play (Arsenic and Old Lace?) for which he won some accolades and which alsoled to his illustrious career in the dramatic arts and movies. The rest of us, laden with heavy back packs, along with a number of sherpas and their pack animals laden with our supplies and tents etc. started the long march to Pindari. What a long and wonderful, if sometimes tiring, walk it was. Thapps and Johnny were our guides and responsible for our well being and both had been on this journey on numerous occasions. Johnny mentioned to me in a recent email that he had done Pindari Glacier trip 17 times! which must be some kind of record and is testament to the fact that this area is one of the most beautiful that one can ever find on this planet. The 7 day march consisted of rising around 6am and devouring breakfast and then commencing a full days walk to our next stop for lunch and then on to a camp site for a nights rest (often in a shack, designed just for trekkers like us, in the middle of nowhere and away from the bears that frequent the place - we heard them howling at night sometimes). We camped at dusk, set up the kitchen, our tents, ate dinner (meals never tasted so good after a hard days trekking), chat around a fire side and then slept soundly. Occasionally we went on a hunt for Sambar- one incident I remember well when I had my turn of the .202 - I went wandering through the forest with, I think Tyagi. Not long after I caught sight of a deer and in wild excitement I took aim and fired (images of roast dear for the team back at the camp entered my mind, just imagine returning to camp with a deer on my shoulder what a sight that would have been!) but alas I missed - the shot surprised the deer which took off and I ran after it hoping to get another more accurate shot but the deer was in familiar surroundings and was faster than I and escaped becoming roast dinner on this occasion.But we did shoot and eat a Monal pheasant-not sure who was responsible for this great deed but the meal was nice. I had a photo of the dead pheasant but it got lost in the many moves I have made since Sherwood. When we were on our last leg of the journey to Pindari, we had just hit the snow line,and unfortunately our pack animals could not transport our supplies over the snow filled gulleys- the animals would sink in to the snow up to their shoulders. It looked like our Pindari trip had come to a grinding halt. But Sherwoodians are taught to persevere through a problem and to be determined and above all have faith in our ability. We did not allow this problem to overcome us so close to the finishing line. We decided we would carry all our supplies ourselves on foot and deliver to base camp which was, if I recall well, around 4-8 miles away. We worked into the night carrying heavy loads and I think we did this 2-3 times each - we had our sherpas helping out as well and so late in the evening we were all exhausted but very happy that we had actually made it and that our expedition was on track! The second attached photo shows our tent on the moraine of Pindari Glacier- this tent housed 10 boys for two weeks. We had some simple rules like "no peeing up stream from the kitchen site". Other stuff had to be done further down stream, preferably buried. We had not washed or showered for a week- indeed we did not wash or shower for the entire month we were away! Guess the school could smell us before we returned. Our base camp was at 12,000ft, on the moraine of the glacier and surrounded by lofty snow capped mountains. I just loved the place and I could have stayed there forever(I know exactly why Johnny went there 17 times).On an unclouded night we could see our surroundings as bright as day due to the full moon shining over all that snow. One morning we decided to use our sled. We crawled up a steep slope nearby for about 1 mile. Question was who was going to go down first? It was quite a steep slope and we did not know how fast we would descend. Typically I put my hand up to become the guinea pig (I was fond of taking risks, would this be my last?). I attached myself to the sled face down and forward- I held tight to the sled, gritted my teeth and down I went - much faster than I expected but I had luck on my side and made it intact to the bottom about 1/2 to 1 mile away. The rest of the boys followed after I lugged the sled back up to the top. This was a very enjoyable way for boys to spend their leisure time. On another day, Johnny and Thapps taught us to use crampons on the glacier (which essentially consisted of crushed ice and shale as well as pure black ice (which was nice to suck on).I had a photo or two of this event but alas they have been misplaced. Our sherpas were amazing, in bare feet they would deliver supplies to a number of camps along the way to a peak at 21,000ft which we had intended on climbing. These sherpas would deliver supplies to these camps and be back to base camp within 1/2 a day- it took us more than 1/2 a day just to get there! Guess the sherpas were used to it. The next day a group of us set out to climb to 19,000ft. In such vast open spaces everything looks close by- it took us hours to get to a crevasse (which looked like it was only 1 mile away from base camp) before we started to make our step ascent up a mountain to plateau at 19000ft. On the first occasion, Tyagi and I were lagging behind the pack and there was no way we would catch up, so Johnny yelled at us to go back to camp. We returned bitterly disappointed but determined to stay with the leading pack on the next attempt, which we did. On this second attempt, we made it to 19000ft. The last hour of this journey was absolutely exhausting in the rarefied atmosphere. But what a wonderful view from this spot. We hung around this spot for an hour or so taking in the scenery. The 21,000 peak we had intended climbing was in the distance and to get there we had to descend and then cross over a flat stretch of land/snow before making our ascent. Unfortunately fresh snow had fallen the previous day/night and covered up all the crevasses. As we did not have any ropes or ladders we called of our attempt at this peak. We were not too concerned with this decision- 19,000ft was plenty high enough and we got to a higher spot on this planet than most people. We returned to base camp in short order- descending snowy slopes is a lot of fun and one can roll down very fast indeed! The worst part of our expedition was leaving the blessed place behind. No one spoke much that morning as we packed up our stuff ready to make our return journey. I remember walking backwards, with a heavy backpack, taking in my last view of the this beautiful place. We had an uneventful journey back to the little village where the bus was already there waiting to take us back home. Oh, just before we got to this village we were walking along a lovely river (Pindari river?) and in the water nearby were two topless very lovely looking village lasses washing their clothes. We decided to have a swim and in doing so we meandered closer and closer to have a good look; we were around 16 years of age and incredibly inquisitive at what mother nature had presented us. But when we got close these beautiful maidens they turned into sirens and shrieked at us and we took off! It was wonderful making that last walk up to the front quadrangle with the entire school lining the path way and patting us smelly boys on the back. I would love to hear from my fellow trekkers and to read their rendition of our once in a life time trip to Pindari Glacier.