Pat Deavoll

The West Face of Vasuki Parbat( photo by Mick Fowler)

India is mad! Not bedlam mad, or bloodthirsty mad, or nuclear holocaust mad?but mad in a riotous, raucous, blindingly colourful way that distinguishes it from any other nation on earth. Nowhere else do you find such contrast, such anomaly between religion, ethnicity, lifestyle or culture as you do in India. Nor do you find such inconsistency in bureaucracy, timeliness or officialdom. This in itself has a charm?.until you have to deal with it yourself!

In 2004 Malcolm Bass and I, plus three other climbers from the UK and New Zealand, made an attempt on the first ascent of Jankuth (6805m) in the Indian Garwhal. We failed, for a variety of reasons. In 2007 Bruce Norman and I applied for a permit to give the mountain another go. In the interim the Uttaranchal State Government decided to get in on the act and charge a fee for the Garwhal peaks. The Indian Mountaineering Federation promptly and efficiently issued our permit, but the State Government would not, giving the reason, ?It is not on our LIST of peaks, madam!? In a huff, we went and climbed something else.

Late 2009. Thinking that the Uttaranchal State Government would have softened, Malcolm and I applied again for a permit for the peak. Not a chance. After diplomatically battling for eight months, we conceded defeat, only to stumble across an entry on Facebook of an Indian/ USA team leaving June 20th for Jankuth! ?Irritated? falls short of summarising our feelings!

However, our Plan B is equally exciting. The huge, steep and very cold West Face of Vasuki Parbat (6792m), attempted two years ago by Mick Fowler and Paul Ramsden. There is a very entertaining account of the climb in the 2009 Alpine Journal. It?s the lead article. The pair arrived at Base Camp the same time as winter, and heavy snow put pay to an effective acclimatisation period. . They came down after a week on the face, suffering the vicious effects of cold and altitude. Fortunately Malcolm and I will have an extra two weeks on Mick and Paul. Meaning we?ll have time to do some good solid, and no doubt miserable, acclimatising somewhere above BC.

I hope I haven?t done India an injustice. As a mountaineering nation, it tends to draw the short straw. It?s been the poor sister to Nepal and Pakistan since the advent of Himalayan climbing. The Indian Himalaya, with some of the most breathtaking peaks on earth, has been relegated to second best for no other reason than that its mountains fail to meet that magic 8000m mark. So what! Even on the well known peaks like Shivling and the Bagarathis? there is every chance you?ll have the mountain to yourself. Just be prepared to spend a bit of time in the organizational phase!