The First Ascent and Exploration of Gorur Peaks in Bagini Bamak Area

A Report

Climbing Leader

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‘Badal a raha rai - ruk jao’ ( The clouds are coming. Don’t go now) - screamed Surinder from his tent.

I came out of the tent and had a look around. The sky was so cloudy that I immediately decided to slip into the tent.

‘The mountain is angry with us - it does not like us’ - murmured Arka from deep into his sleeping bag.

We were at a loss and thinking all our hard works of last few days might be in vain. We were in Camp 2 and just short of our aim for an eight hour’s climb.

That night at Camp 2 did not dawn clear as all other previous days. Instead, it was a dark morning with all kinds of threats from black clouds surrounding us. It was a clear indication of anger of the mountain goddess Nanda Devi, as we had trodden into her forbidden land and was on our toe to climb a peak in her territory for the first time in the history of mankind. We, after getting confused a lot & waiting for another six hours, started climbing even under the threatening sky, but fortunately reached the summit of the unnamed and virgin peak (6268 m) at 3 PM. According to the local people and mythology, we call this peak as Gorur Dome ( the Bird from Heaven ) and the very first ascent on this peak was made on 9^th June, 1998 by the three members of JUNIPERS - an association of nature lovers from Calcutta and one HAP from Joshimath.

It was a report on an expedition to Trisuli west in Bagini Glacier by Mr Roger Payne, General Secretary of British Mountaineering Council, downloaded through Internet from the web site of Alpine club, UK, that drew my attention to the unexplored regions of the glacier. That web site (www.alpine-club.org.uk) is one of my favourite site and I found it while surfing the net. The report on Trisuli west (7035 m) describes some of the untrodden valley to the north of the main glacier and the peaks in them. A few e-mails to Mr Roger Payne for further information and his valuable advice on that area provided us the basic idea behind the venture.

We studied the available maps and all the reports on that region and ultimately found that if we could follow a river coming from northeast of the main Bagini bamak, we would reach a glacier that was never visited by any team and surrounded by at least three peaks - none of them were ever challenged. We finalised our plan on this particular part of the glacier and also decided to reconnoitre for a feasible route to climb the virgin Trisuli west peak.

We sent our proposal to IMF and it was readily approved. But the necessary inner line permit from UP State Govt did not come through in time even after our several letters and requests. It was a risk to start without knowing anything about the status of the permit, but we decided to continue the show.

The idea of climbing an unnamed peak started striking on our fortune from the very beginning of the venture. The proposed ten member team was reduced to a mere 4 member one as all other members got unavoidable personal problems that prevented them to join the team. It was decided that Arnab would lead the climbing team during the expedition as climbing leader.

Even the Doon express got an initial delay of 4 hours to start with and it extended the late to a huge 11 hours one, as we alighted from it in Hardwar in the evening of 28^th May. The next morning saw us hurriedly rushing to Joshimath by a hired car, but a railway bridge under construction stopped us even before reaching Rishikesh and forced us to watch the activities of huge cranes impatiently. Ultimately, we reached Joshimath in the evening under a haze sky and stayed at the Hotel Nandadevi.

The next two days were the most tension packed days we spent during the venture, as the local SDM denied to give us the permit. Though we were having IMF approval, but according to him it was not at all sufficient and he need an approval from State Government office in Lucknow. We made correspondence to the Lucknow office well before we started from Calcutta, but their attitude were very casual on this matter. We understood that the only way to get a proper approval is to visit Lucknow office before going to the mountain and to approve the proposal somehow which is not clear to us even now. Fortunately, The DM of Chamoli district whose office is in Gopeswar, but for some reason he visited Joshimath on that day. On our earnest request and looking through the IMF approval he kindly gave us the permit.

So ultimately we got the ticket to enter a forbidden land and then started food marketing for the next few days on the mountain. A local agency, run by Kundan Singh and Raju guide, came forward with porter assistance and we were all set to start on the early morning of 1^st June.

Our car started approaching Juma - a village on the Joshimath -Malari road at 6 AM. Some LAPs were waiting at Lata village to join us. The 46-km journey along Dhauli Ganga, with a nice view of Nanda Devi from a viewpoint on the road, ultimately ended in Juma at 9.30 AM.

We started walking towards Dunagiri village after crossing the Dhauli Ganga and followed the nice track through the deep alpine forest. The trek route had numerous beautiful flowers, butterflies and a splendid view of Kuntivanar peak to enjoy. We reached a small village ,‘Ruin’, after an hour walk and then started entering the Bagini valley. The route was steep and it took another two and half-hours to reach ‘Chacha’ to have our lunch and hot tea. After this stop, the track climbed through a completely and dangerously broken landslide zone to the wonderful green valley of Dunagiri village. We reached the village at about 4.30 PM in the evening and stayed at the local school building.

The village, Dunagiri, is a summer time village at a height of 3615 m (11,860 ft) with views of spectacular Hati Parbat massif to its northeast and a part of Hardeol ridges to its east. The villagers are mostly resident of Chamoli who in summer changes their home to this nice place for firming and in search of food for their cattles.

The next morning, I got a bad news from a messenger sent from Joshimath that my mother was not well and I had no other way but to return to Calcutta. I decided to stay with the team upto Base camp and then leaving the climbing part of the expedition on Climbing leader Arnab and its team, I would return. We started moving towards the Bagini bamak and reached the snout within 10.30 AM. From there, we followed the left branch of the river. Our idea was to follow the river as long as it did not bend to the northeast and to establish the base camp there. But the LAPs thought otherwise. First, they dumped their load much before the original river bent and then on our request they agreed to carry the loads for another 1.5 km to dump again besides a tiny river coming down from the north. They insisted that this was the river we were looking for and there was no camping site after it and etc. So, we were forced to establish the base camp (4250m - 14000ft) there though we were guessing that we were well short from our planned site.

That evening I returned from the base camp and Arnab took charge of the climbing part of the expedition.

In the evening of the day we reached the BC, Surinder came down from the Changabang base camp high above the glacier, where a Russ-American team were attempting the north face of the peak and told us he was instructed by the agency (who arranged our porters) to join us. According to him, the original BC was one hour’s walk ahead besides the main river coming down from the northeast.

The next morning, carrying some load, we reconnoitred the above camp site and reached the bent of the river in about 2 hours. After having a look around and studying the map once again, we were certain that our approach should be along the river to the north west and that will lead us to the glacier from where the river is originated and where we had planned to go. We decided to establish the ABC at this green meadow (4450m - 14600ft) just besides the joining point of the two rivers - one coming from the Bagini bamak and another from the never visited glacier.

Two more extensive load ferry on the next day and we were comfortably positioned in our ABC. That evening a 4 hours long snowfall turned the place to a white paradise with the massif view of Saf minal (6547 m) and Rishi Pahar (6992 m) just rising ahead of us. Hardeol, Trisuli, Changabang or Kalanka - none of the legendary peaks were fully visible, but the entire scene was dramatic enough with the touch of mystery and myth of Nanda Devi Sanctuary.

The next day, 5^th June, we decided to open route for Camp1. With little load, we followed the river towards Northeast. The snow slopes were very steep but as we climbed up, were offered with some majestic views of Changabang and Kalanka range. Approaching more deeps into the glacier, we reached within 1 km of the snout point. The river is coming down from the point with an at least 600-ft high waterfall and behind it one could see the peak 6504 rising superbly like a spreaded wing of hawk. Later we came to know that local people cal it Gorur Parbat - as per name of the bird (hawk) companion of God Vishnu in myth.

We found a moraine to establish Camp 1, which is safe from rockfalls from either side of it. The site was at a height of 5100m - 16732 ft and was reached by us from ABC in 4.5 hours time. We dumped the load and came back to ABC within 3 PM to find all the snow of the last evening’s snowfall were vanished under the bright heat of the day. We discussed and were agreed that at least another camp (camp2) would be required to attempt the peak 6268m that was not even visible from Camp1.

The next morning, all of us with full load containing tents, food and equipments, started early for occupying C1. Surinder and I reached the site within 12 PM. After pitching the tents and preparing some tea, went ahead to penetrate further into the unknown glacier and to open the route to C2. The route ahead seemed very critical from C1 site with the superb waterfall in front of us and the glacier visible beyond it.

We reached the bottom of the waterfall and then studied all the probable routes. The route along the left side of the waterfall climbed through a rockfall zone, but still it looked safer than the steep icy route with the occasional avalanche zones on the top along the other side of the waterfall. We climbed that left-sided route to negotiate the waterfall and rocky hump to reach the terminal moraines of the glacier. We crossed them and stepped into the glacier to have a look around.

What we saw was simply exciting and majestic. The most prominent peak was undoubtedly Gorur Parbat (6504 m), which had two ridges facing the glacier. The west ridge had a rocky col (beyond which lies Kalla bamak) at one end and a very crevassy climb to the summit. The long and beautiful looking south ridge came down from the top to form a icy col and the slopes to reach the col from the glacier seemed to offer a hard and serious climb (to which I was attracted at the very first look and decided to have an attempt after our peak climbing). Due south to this col, a rocky pinnacle rose very steeply to form a forked peak (6300 m - approx.) and the ridge continues to the south, beyond which a white dome shaped summit was visible with an elegant look. This peak was our aim - 6268m - Gorur Dome. The obvious route to this peak was to climb the ice face of around 1700-ft straight from the glacier to reach the south ridge of the forked peak and then approach to the dome shaped summit behind an ice plateau.

We came back happily to camp1 being very satisfied with the day’s climbing and what we discovered. We decided to ferry load to Camp 2 site next day. As per our discussion that evening, we agreed to attempt the peak 6268-m (Gorur Dome) first and then, if time and weather would permit, to test our luck on Gorur Parbat (6504 m) via the south col.

It was very bright and sunny on the next morning and we carried all remaining loads and started for Camp 2. Though the load was enormously heavy for all of us, but the team was so well acclimatised and physically fit that we could reach and pitch the tents in the Camp 2 site within 1 PM. Without wasting any time, Surinder and myself were on the way to open route further ahead. We had a major confusion about whether we need another camp on the snow plateau above the ice face to reach the summit safely or not. But as we started climbing the ice wall, it was so fast and the climbing was so safe on the nicely hard packed snow slopes with gradient varying from degrees 45 to 70, that we felt even no rope fixing was necessary for our well balanced and small team and we could make the summit bid from Camp 2 only. I leaded a route on an ice ramp of slope of more than 80 degree, but did not fix the rope as Surinder found an easy way up negotiating that ramp. Ultimately, we reached more than half way up the 1700 ft high face within two hours and then decided to return to Camp 2 with the estimation that the total time required to reach the summit from C2 would be around 8 - 9 hours.

The next day, 9^th June, I came out of the tent at 4 AM and was shocked to find the clear and bright weather of the last 10 days was blurred by black, thick clouds. Being confused about whether we should go for the summit attempt or not, we slipped into the tent and waited for the weather to improve. As the day advanced, the weather did neither improve nor deteriorate. The clouds were well above the surrounding peaks and visibility was not too bad, but the risk was that the weather could turn bad any time and we might be caught in severe snowfall or blizzard or white out in the middle of the wall.

Ultimately, we decided to have a go on 10.45 AM. As we knew that we didn’t have much time in our hand, we started climbing in a pace as fast as we could. We roped up ourselves and nowhere tried to fix any rope. The climbing was exceptionally smooth without a single fall on the nice ice slopes. We reached the top of the wall within an incredible 3 hour’s time. We stopped there for a while and judged our position. It was a nice panorama around in spite of the clouds here and there and the Lampak group of peaks was clearly visible to our northeast. We were on one side of the large snow plateau, on the other side of which the summit ridge of the dome shaped top of Gorur Dome rose gradually and elegantly.

It was an easy but long and tiring walk up the snow Plateau and the summit ridge. Now I took the lead and reached the summit at 3 PM. The rest of the team joined me within 15 minutes to enjoy the clouded summit panorama with some disturbed view of Nanda Devi east, Bethartoli Himal, Dunagiri, Purbi Dunagiri, Changabang, Kalanka and Lampak peaks. The weather was showing all signs of deteriorating and we quickly unfurled the national flag and then started descending only after a stay of twenty minutes at the top.

The descend was not at all easy on those serious graded slopes and highly exposed faces with the chilled wind started flowing and black clouds coming down on us. There were two falls while descending but after cautious and swift arresting, we reached Camp 2 safely.

Meanwhile the snowfall started vigorously. It continued for all the night, then all the next day and it seemed that it would never stop. Next night, blizzard started blowing and sometimes it was so strong that we thought the tents would be torned away anytime. The sound of avalanches coming down from different parts of the snow slopes around us added to the anxiety of our sleepless night. When that horrible night was over and snowfall seemed to have reduced a lot, we came out of the tents to find that the area got at least 4 feet of fresh snowfall and outer of one of our tents was simply gone by the mad wind of last night.

The stock of our kerosene was over and so there was no way to melt snow to get some drinking water. We packed our gears and started descending. But again, we were trapped in a complete white out and almost zero visibility on the glacier. We lost our route and were plodding through the deep snow to find the route down for all the day. Being exhausted and frustrated, we rested several times on the glacier and hoped the weather would be cleared up to some extent and we would find our way. But it never happened. At last we found the river originating from the glacier and heard the sound of the water fall, at the bottom of which was our C 1. We followed the river and sound and then climbed down the slope besides the waterfall to reach C1. The weather was still bad and white out continued to exist. So we decided to continue our climb down towards ABC. This time we didn’t make any mistake on finding the route and followed the river strictly through the deep mist and relieved to find the ABC within 6 PM in the evening.

Thus the anger of the mountain goddess on us - probably for entering the glacier for the first time and climbing a virgin peak, stretched us to our extreme but at the end, let us survive.

The porters arrived on the next day and we, after a night halt in Dunagiri, reached Joshimath in the evening of 13^th June.

We left no gears or any non-biodegradable material in the mountain. Both the BC and ABC site were cleaned and garbage were burnt. The porters were employed to bring back all the equipments and excess food and provisions.

The natural resources of the northern Nanda Devi Sanctuary are simply enormous like that of the main sanctuary area. The deep alpine forests with flowers and orchids of innumerable species, gorgeous looking butterflies and bharals (though we didn’t see any) make this area a perfect paradise for any nature lover. Now that the area is open for trekking and expeditions, all mountaineers visiting this area should try their best to preserve this wonderful heaven on the earth.

Though the peaks we explored carry no name on the maps, the local people have names for them. We asked the people of Dunagiri village and found the main peak in the glacier - 6504 m - that looked like a spreaded wing of a huge bird from our C1 site was familiar to them as Gorur Parbat. Gorur was a hawk in the Hindu mythology and a companion of Lord Vishnu. Thus the name was very suitable and we decided to call it by the same name.

Then, as the main peak in the glacier was Gorur Parbat, the glacier was named as Gorur glacier and the peak we climbed, was named as Gorur Dome(6268 m) because of its dome shaped summit. The rocky peak between these two peaks can be named as Gorur forked peak, as the summit of it is incredibly sharp.

The expedition offered us not only an experience and climbing exposure of lifetime but also the feeling of exploring a new region of remote Himalayas and making the first ascent on a peak was something different than all our previous experiences. The sheer determination, team spirit and the mental and physical preparation we did before the expedition were the key to success.

The area around Bagini glacier had enormous climbing opportunities ranging from easy to difficult ice and rocky peaks and most of them are still unexplored.

The first exploration of Gorur Glacier - a tributary to the main Bagini Bamak.

The first ascent on Gorur Dome(6268 m) and

reconnaissance on Gorur Parbat(6504 m) and Gorur forked peak (6300 m - approx.) were made.