The expedition to Mount Menthosa (6443 m) in Lahaul Himalayas, Himachal Pradesh was organized by JUNIPERS - an organization formed just one year ago by the ex-students of Jadavpur University. After the successful expedition to Swetvarn Glacier in September,1997 - the first one for the club in which we scaled Mount Koteswar (6050 m) and attempted Saife (6161 m), we decided to go for a more technical and higher challenge this year.

After a thorough study and discussion, we choose Menthosa (6443m) . This mountain, situated near the small and beautiful Lahaul town, Udeypur, has some challenging proposition. Moreover, it has a very short approach and seems to offer the opportunity of climbing moderate and difficult graded ice walls in a breath taking surroundings.

Ours was a five member team lead by Mr. Prasanta Roy. One of the team member left Calcutta on 22^nd August ,97 for Manali as advanced team. Rest of us with all expedition gears left Calcutta on 23^rd August,97.

We reached Manali via Ambala on 25^th August and found ourselves in heavy downpour weather. But, fortunately Rohtang Pass was still open and the bus service office in Manali announced that the road upto Udeypur is all clear. The next day, we did final marketing and packing. From Jagatsukh, Sonam, Somdeo and Vasant( as a cook) joined our team as high altitude friends.

We started early at 5:00 AM for Udeypur . The weather was still terrible - raining heavily. The bus crossed Rohtang Pass but stopped 2 km before Nursery because of dangerously damaged road. We had to ferry loads - some of them were nearly 30 kg or above - through the heavy rain, knee deep mud, over streams roaring past the road and landslides and rock fall zones.

Despite all our effort and help of a GREF truck, soaked to the worst level, we could only reach Nursery at the end of that day. While spending the night in a garage like shelter with the sound of continuous raining outside , reaching Udeypur seemed to be the most difficult part of the route to the peak.

There is a phrase - Morning shows the day. But it is not always true. As the day started with a spectacular rainbow on the green hills raising from the other side of the Chenab and then a fresh sun came over, we were delighted. But as the time ticked away, the black and rainy clouds were back in their position.

At 11:30 AM, we boarded a bus to reach Keylong, if the road ahead is good enough to drive through. It was still raining, when we reached Keylong at 1:30 PM. The road was badly damaged before Tandi, but we were able to pass through. At 2:30 PM, we again jumped into another bus in Keylong which would go towards Udeypur as long as the road is good enough.

This time our luck favored us and we reached Udeypur at 5:30 PM.

Though the road to Karpat was still damaged, one local businessman was going to Karpat with his small truck and he was agreed to give us a lift. The weather improved in the meantime. We boarded the vehicle at 10:30 AM and reached Karpat via Shikoli-Chamrat by a two hours long tough drive.

We found no mule from Karpat and were told by the local people that mules are available from Tingrat - a village 3 km ahead. We met a local man, Thendup Lama, who is a resident of Urgus village , and he promised us to arrange mules and LAPS for the next day to base camp. He seemed to be a reliable person.

We went to Tingrat by another truck and hired 6 mules. The walk from Tingrat to Urgus was a easy and pleasant one through the flat and beautiful valley - full of firms of peas and corns. The walk took only one hour.

We stayed at the the Gumpha of Urgus that night.

The day was bright and sunny. We started for base camp with all the LAPs at 7:45 AM. The route was very steep at the beginning, then a gradual slope following the right bank of Urgus nalla. After 2 hours walk, we crossed the river. Then the route started rising steeply over boulders towards two consecutive humps behind which was the base camp.

The first team reached BC at 2 PM and the last team at 4 PM. It was a beautiful site for BC at around 14,200 ft with a little stream bending through and slopes around to obstruct chilly winds. There were plenty of small flowers blossomed here and there and birds seeking for food. The most important thing is that one has to go only twenty steps away from his tent to get a breathtaking view of the great Menthosa massif.

We decided to ferry some load to just beneath the glacier. The route was fairly steep at the beginning and then a ridge over terminal moraine of the glacier took us to a suitable point to dump loads. We got a view of our route to C-1 which would pass by the right hand side of the ice fall through dangerously broken crevasses. Even the site for the C-1 was obvious and visible from the dumping point, but the route up there did not seem safe and easy at all. We were back at BC within 4 PM.

We decided to ferry loads to C-1. One of the members was ill and compelled to stay back. So, four of us with two HAPs left BC at 8 AM and reached the dumping point within 2 hours.

Then, using crampons we followed a zigzag route over the glacier to negotiate numerous large and small crevasses and ultimately finding no route over ice on the upper part of the slope, we climbed to rocky slope of around 70 gradient. No fixing was necessary but it was a hard climb to C-1. We reached C-1 site at 3 PM and had a nice look of the upper portion of the route that seemed more difficult and challenging.

We were back at the BC within 6 PM.

After some very long days, we decided to take rest to restore our energy and stamina. We packed and planned everything to occupy C-1 next day. The leader decided to stay back at BC, in case of any support needed and rest of us with two HAPs were ready to go for a climb.

But the weather again played the joke with us by its awful clouds and rain. We spent all the day in tents, playing cards, cricket, photographing birds, flowers and a spectacular rainbow that came out in the afternoon.

The weather improved and we were on our way to C-1 without wasting any time. We had massif loads on our back and so it took a long time before we reached C-1 in the afternoon.

The campsite was a rocky patch just west of the Urgus pass with a majestic view of Bangy valley and numerous unnamed and unknown (to us) peaks towards Kishtwar Himalayas. Only the two peaks that we identified were Mount Shiva and Sickle moon of Kiishtwar.

The route above was guarded by a mere 700 ft high wall with patches of black ice all over it. This wall seemed to be the most difficult pitch to overcome.

We started at 8 AM towards the wall to fix ropes on it. It took almost an hour to cross the gentle but rising ice slope to reach the bottom of the wall. We found some old ropes lying on the wall used by earlier expeditions. We followed the same route as no other route seemed feasible and were out of danger of avalanches.

The initial pitches were gentle and having 60 slope, but at the middle of the wall the gradient increased , so as black ice patches. We fixed 500 ft rope to reach a nice platform over which standing the last 200 ft of the wall. This last pitches had a fiercefull hanging cornice at the top. Ultimately, we fixed two ropes on that slope and breaking the cornice on the top , we reached the top of the slope. This was clearly the crux of the route. We were back at C-1 within 4:30 PM.

The morning dawned clear , but just before 7 AM the sky was engulfed by hazy clouds. We started our march for camp-II at around 8:30 AM. After treading the initial slopes we reached the fixed ropes at 9: 30 AM. It was a long and tiring climb up the fixed ropes. The first lengthy pitch saw one of our member retiring due to heavy breathing problems. But while retreating Arnab really took some breath taking photographs of our climb. So the final assault was left to five fitter members, who after taking some rest on the intermediate platform embarked on an higher accent. The next 200 to 300 feet took test of the climbers agility and the hanging cornice was climbed head on , only to get nice sun rays on the turn. After negotiating a huge bergshrund with a U-turn we found a slope of about 70 degrees covered with packed snow. While taking some chocolates and panoramic photos we decided for a rope up climb.(We actualy ruled out a second summit bid at that point only because the fitter members were all in the first team and the ration we were carrying were there to last for only one day.) Then there was a long and toiling climb up the slopes with varying degree of difficulty. Finally at around 3:00 PM we reached our pre-planned camp-II site (19,500ft), the same as the Japanese ladies team of 1985. We could have a first good look on the other side towards the Parvati Valley and mount Shiva. The summit route of the Japanese became clear to us and we decided to follow the same route early next morning. Our members had a faint look of the base camp and the villages towards Karpat and the weather started to deteriorate. We took nice hot rice and dal with a flaky snowfall. The antics of Sonam cheered us up ,who constantly leg-pulled Sandip referring to his newly bought Minolta as "ye camera to bekar hai". The wind became stronger than the black coffee, we were having and we went to sleep hoping only an improvement of weather next morning.

As we prepared to get out of our tent at around 4:30 we heard the fierceful sound of wind lashing our tents. Peeking out of the tent it appeared to be completely darkened out and the heavy downpour of snow threatened to deconstruct our shelters. It took us another hour to gulp down some hot liquid, get dressed and set up for an determined last effort. The peak was nowhere to be seen, the route was visible upto 20 metres, We climbed straight up the hump and then not quiet sure of the route ahead took a left turn, negotiating a mammoth bergshrund and started climbing a precariously placed wall covered with snow of around 70 degrees. But after reaching a flat over the wall our pace slowed down considerably due to poor visibility and gusty wind.We took breath and waited 15 minutes hoping for improvement in visibility, but in vain. We decided to continue upwards and at around 8AM the wall leading to the north east ridge was seen. At that point it became clear that we were in the cwm which is bordered by the east and the north east ridge. Fear of deep crevasses and feedback of earlier expeditions led us to take a rounabout way to catch the north-east ridge. The wind with the snowfall started to take the shape of an obnoxious blizzard ,the visibility reduced and Somdev(HAP) stated to feel a stomach pain.At around 9AM we were under a steep wall leading to the north east ridge which demanded a rope fixing for all the members to climb it. The visibility reduced to 5-10 metres, the piercing blizzard hinted cold ailments but the pull of the rope was there at the waist to indicate that there were other members also and it was decided that only two members will have a final try under such weather conditions - Lets have a last try! But after some steps it seemed impossible and thus the summit attempt was abandoned at around 20,800 ft.

Photographs were taken at the highest point reached and the return seemed equally dangerously. We somehow returned to camp-II ,totally dejected only to find out that our tents were smashed by the snowfall and heavy wind. It took us another our to pack up and leave the camp site for camp one. All the garbages were taken back in sack to be destroyed at base camp. The descent to camp-I saw us enjoying a life as all the five members had a huge fall (roped-up) of 300 ft down a steeper slope only to be arrested by a shallow crevasse from rolling down to the unknown. The fixed ropes were all buried 12 inches below snow and it was a monumental task to dig them back, climb down and take them off the surface. Finally the team reached camp-II at around 3PM greeted by a smiling Arnab with hot tea. The weather by then has improved considerably.

We cleared the CI site under much improved weather condition but no food and time left for a second attepmt. We took off all equipments and fixed ropes from the mountain and carried them to BC in the afternoon.

In the morning, the LAPs arrived and after winding up and clearing the BC site, we headed downhill foe Karpat village where we got a warm welcome from the villagers with hot tea, rice and dal. We all were too tired of the extensive effort for last two weeks but managed to reach Udeypur in the night of the same day and relished the hot and nice food in the Himalaya dhaba near bus stand of the small town.

We carried down all the equipments and garbages from the upper camp ( Camp 2) and from the faces of the mounatin. In camp 1, we burnt all garbages to make the site neat and clean and carried down all the other stuffs to Base Camp. We hired enough number of porters to carry down each and every stuff of our expedition.There was a nice and lovely cleaning session in the Base camp on our day of leaving the same, in which even all the low altitude porters who just reached the site in that morning, helped the members to clean the site and burn all non degradable garbages.

We were guided by the mountain rule : Take nothing but the photographs, Leave nothing but the footsteps.

Though we were not succesful in reaching the top of the peak, we reached the very last point of our limit of climbimg ability and physical and mental test. It was a remarkable experience for all of us to experience such a difficult graded ice climbing at around 19,000-21,000 ft altitude. Moreover, the area is rarely visited and what we explored and found is that there are a number of climbing opportunities in that region. Menthosa West pillar(6300m), just beside the main peak is still virgin and very very challenging. The Phabrang group of peaks and also peaks towards Bangy valley remain to be more explored. The local people were very friendly and helpful and that also helps this naturally beautiful region to become a mounataineer’s paradise.

Expedition to Mount Menthosa (6443 M) in Lahul Himalayas by JUNIPERS

Duration: 22^th August to 15^th Sept, 1997

Base camp : Establised on 30^th August at 14200 ft

Camp 1 : Established on 4^th Sept on Urgus Pass at 18,000 ft (appx)

Camp 2 : Established on 6^th Sept just beneath summit ridge at 19500 ft (appx)

Summit Attempt: 3 members and 2 HAPs made the attempt on 7^th September but was abondoned due to severe snowfall and lack of visibility.

Maximum height reached : 20,800ft (appx)