Showing posts with label everest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label everest. Show all posts

Monday, February 08, 2016

Feverish over Ev history

Sunday spent feverish about people well dead and buried by now. The 1922 British team to attempt the Everest was an A-team of all sorts. It was only a year back, in the 1921 reconaissance mission, that a possible route to the Everest - through Tibet - was identified. These two expeditions - of 1921 and 1922 - count among the best, hardest, and bravest of mountaineering expeditions on this subcontinent. The enthusiasm with which every member of the team took it up, despite the inconveniences, brings to mind that agency that i have been trying to find and lift myself through in this year.

Also managed to confirm some finer details of JBL Noel's 1913 expedition, AM Kellas' covert documentation of 1920s, and the 1921 expedition, all of which led to the 1922 expedition.
The Arun River, which originates from Shishapangma (the shortest of eight thousanders), also has a fascinating course, that ultimately feeds the Saptkoshi system, that was new knowledge for me. Oh, and Tashikak != Tashigaon, that which fired all my curiosities to begin with, was resolved.

And I guess every time somebody takes a damn lotta interest in this, at the end of the day sits Wade Davis, with his book "Into the Silence" chronicling those events. Though a 2011 book, it is available at very few vendors - at 672 pages it sits beyond the boundaries as a primer or as a lighthearted reading, and I guess that is why it hasn't received a wider audience.
Lucky to have stumbled onto the last remaining copy on Amazon India, a surprisingly cheap paperback edition available that was immediately summoned to my home.

Friday, December 20, 2013

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

More young at the Everest

Though I'm not perched atop any [insert geological feature here] that provides a complete survey of the Everest basecamp, I get around to some interesting discoveries, right from my seat in Delhi. India is supposed to make news with the kind of numbers we have up there this season. A brash Colonel-sahib - one with such proximity to the climbing activity scene in this country that revealing his name in this context would ensure a scandal - quipped a few weeks back "Baraat hai apne gharwalon ki ab toh wahan par". But that our media stays away from what could potentially be a bouquet of accounts of daring, survival, adventure, and records - endless hours of inspiration (note: entertainment) - is shameful, and so I search more, and highlight whatever little digging I do.

First are the Malik sisters of Dehradun, Nungshi and Tashi, both 20-year-olds. If they do it, they become the first twins to have scaled the Everest. It hasn't been too long that they got into mountaineering-as-a-sport, starting only after they were out of school, but the pace of ambitions is fast, and so here they are two years later, scaling the Everest. Seeing that they are under the care and leadership of the celebrity climber Mingma Sherpa up there, I think they will. When it comes to mountaineering feats, the memory etched in Dehradun's conscience is of the Bahuguna brothers, both of whom lost their lives attempting the Everest, 14 years separated in time (in 1971 and 1985, respectively). If they summit successfully, the Malik Sisters could become the new memory. And yes, they'll make for awesome photos, too.

Then there's Samina Khayal Baig and Mirza Baig, a brother-sister duo from Pakistan. If they do it, Samina becomes the first Pakistan girl to summit the Everest. These siblings originally come from Shimshal Valley (deep in the extreme Karakoram range in Upper Hunza), with relatively poor background. Mirza - the elder brother, who is a professional mountain guide, and has 12 years of background of mountaineering - could be credited with the stubbornness with which they've taken up this endeavor. Samina is a 21-year-old student of Arts, and the only Pakistani female to adopt mountaineering as a profession. She has been climbing regularly since 2010. She, coincidentally, is doing this as a part of the same group (Seven Summits) as the Malik sisters are. I guess Seven Summits is very supportive of such ambitions.

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EQmaurl2V0 [Geo TV documentary on  Samina's ascent of the "Chaashkin Sar", which was renamed to "Samina Peak" after her successful ascent]