The (lame) Attempt of Bandarpunch

I first saw Bandarpunch when I went to Dayara Bugyal with my wife, and Araib and Nitin in 2014.

On that trip, our destination was Gidara Bugyal ahead of Dayara Bugyal but we were destined for Dodital. If you're familiar with the terrain then these aren't on the same hill, but when it started snowing and we were caught unprepared, our guide had made us descend through the forest all the way down to the river and climb up the hill on the other side to reach Dodital. The trek through the forest was utterly exhausting but exciting. The camp at Manjhi was one of the most scenic campsites I had ever been to.

It was a memorable trip and Bandarpunch just happened to be the background peak in some of most memorable pics my wife and I have.

It’s 2019 and Araib suggests that we climb Bandarpuch peak in October. According to him, it is relatively easier than other peaks of similar height. It did not involve technical climbing. NIM in earlier years, he said, used to take the AMC course to Bandarpunch.

Bandarpunch was fine with me and Nitin also agreed. He agrees to anything. We of course didn’t verify any of Araib’s claims by reading accounts of other ascents. We didn't even seek any guide or expert to discuss the peak with him. We just decided based on its romantic appeal to our memories, because that appeal was pretty strong.

Turned out that Araib was right about the technical climbing part. But it also turned out that there were crevasses which would be open in October and there was a high probability of not being able to find a route to the top. It is a peak suitable for summer climbs when the crevasses are covered. NIM doing its AMC course at Bandarpunch also turned out to be gas. Apparently there had been an expedition but they had returned unsuccessfully. Atleast that’s what our guide told us.

Luckily for us, we did find a guide who had previously summited the peak. He had just recently returned from Mt.Trishul on an IMF expedition, and was in top form. He told us that summit was possible.

We had heard what we wanted to hear, that summit was possible, and we started our preparation.

Our roadhead would be at a village named Sukki near Harshil. Harshil is a town beside the Bhagirathi river and is the place where apple orchards were introduced by the Uttarakhand government some years back. We tasted the local apples and they were good.

Below Sukki flows the Bhagirathi river. Bhagirathi originates at the Gangotri glacier, the snout of which is famously called Gaumukh. Bhagirathi flows past Uttarkashi towards Devprayag, where it merges with Alaknanda to be renamed the holy Ganga.

Just a few KMs after passing Harshil, the Bhagirathi is joined by a tributary river which originates at another Glacier called Bandarpunch. We had to trace this tributary to its glacier and climb the peak above it. The highest altitude would be 6316 m above sea level.

After giving us the peak and being involved in the planning, due to some circumstances, Araib could not join us. The outcome of the trip might have a little been different had Araib been there with us. I shall explain later.

The starting dates were towards the end of September. In 2017 and 18, there had been weather disturbances around 20th – 25th Sep, but the weather had got stable by the end of the month. In 2019 unfortunately, the bad weather continued till the start of October.

There were forecasts of thunderstorms at Uttarkashi till the 2nd of Oct. Thereafter, it would be a mix of cloudy weather, rain showers and a little sun. However, the thunderstorms would atleast be over. It was not exactly the best news for us, but we were hopeful of a sunny day streak during the final days of our climb.

Initially the forecast proved correct. The thunderstorms eased and on the day we finally set out from Uttarkashi, the 2nd of October, the sky was clear. The morning of 3rd Oct was sunny, but in the afternoon rain came pouring down. Next day was rainy from the start. And thereafter, on all days the weather continued to play games with us.

Nobody likes bad weather. You don’t go into the hills to get wet or walk in slush. Drying the shoes and clothes every night over a fire might sound romantic but it isn’t fun. The worst is, the trail absorbs water and becomes slushy. In many places, the hills don’t have natural drainage and the water spreads out all over the hillside, spoiling the trails. The ‘nalas’ also increase in flow.

Usually, any trek will have a trail. Either made by the forest department and laid out with stones with proper water drainage, or made by frequent traffic. On the route to Bandarpunch base camp, we found very few of such trails.

The trail available had been mostly made by grazing animals and grazing animal, you know, shit a lot. That shit dries up and becomes soil over a period of time. And when it rains, this soil absorbs water and becomes slush. Not too old cow shit however doesn’t become muddy slush – it stays shit, waiting for you to step on it and get its Moksha.

At few places, we found no trails at all, not even those made by animals. We just had to descend or traverse the hill side making our own way through the shrubs of our choice, frequently getting hit by a thorny branch swinging back onto your face as the guy on your front skirted round it.

The first nala had a bridge, thereafter all nalas had to be jumped across.

At lower altitudes, we met a few cowherds and shepherds. Higher up, although we thankfully did not meet them, we frequently came across bear paw prints and poo.

Bears are dangerous animals, perhaps the most dangerous animal in the Himalayas. Leopards don’t usually attack humans. Likewise, bears also don’t attack humans. Infact, they actively avoid humans. But unlike leopards who are usually perched up in the branches and more alert, there are higher chances of accidently coming across a bear who is on the ground.

To prevent that, you have to make noises. Alert the bear to your presence and he will most probably avoid you. Bears are also nocturnal, and they don’t attack a group, so we stayed together, camped away from the river, and avoided walking single or going out far from camp at night.

At higher altitudes, one day before base camp, we came across Bhojpatra trees, of the Raja Bhoj and Raja Vikramaditya fame. I had never given much notice them ever in my life before, although I had come across them. There were so many of them this time, and in such exquisite spread and sway that it was impossible to ignore them.

Bhojpatra are trees with a white bark that peels off like paper. In ancient times, they were used to make paper. Ancient scripts and texts were being written on Bhojpatra, since 75 B.C.

After 3 days of camping in the forest, on the fourth day we camped at Bandarpunch base camp. It was the 6th October.

From the base camp, we had to spend 2 days ferrying the load to camp 1, then one day till camp 2, then summit and return to camp 1, and on the 5th day return to base camp.

We needed atleast the next 4 days to be sunny in order to make a successful attempt.

At the base camp, Bandarpunch glacier was right above us. For camp 1, we had to traverse a ridge upwards, ascend by around a KM in altitude, to reach the top of the hill, almost level with the glacier.

We woke up to clouds on the first day at basecamp. The clouds looked certain to pour. And they did shortly before noon. Because of the high winds and a hailstorm, we dropped off our load several hundred meters before camp 1 and returned to base camp.

At camp, our cook had made pakoras and tea for us. While the hailstorm continued outside.

The next day, we woke up to a strangely calm day with a layer of white clouds stretching from horizon to horizon. The weather made me nostalgic. I had seen those kinds of clouds. Never in the monsoon, never in the plains. I had seen similar clouds in winters while growing up in Nainital. Without a doubt it was going to snow.

Any climber will tell you that climbs should not be attempted till atleast 72 hours after a snowfall. Let alone climb in imminent conditions of snowfall.

So that scene put an end to our hopes. But we had days left with us so we decided to go till camp 1 anyway. Atleast get an experience of climbing and camping in the snow.

Our guide supported us and the three of us set off with the remaining ration and equipment towards camp 1. By the time we had reached the area where we had dumped our equipment the previous day, fierce winds were blowing.

We put on our snowboots and gaitors. The slope for the last few hundred meter was steep and we should have taken our crampons as well but we didn’t anticipate the need till it was too late to return to get them.

The hailstorm over the previous nights had deposited a thick layer of hail over the old snow. As we would step over it, the balls of ice would breakup and scatter like balls from a bean bag. They would act as ball bearings and roll under our shoes. Finding a stable foothold was hard. Still we carefully made our way up, till we almost reached the top of the hill.

Here, the layer of hailstones was over waist deep. If previously we were climbing on ‘sabudaana’, here we were waist deep into them. We took one foot forward, slipped a foot back. It was almost impossible to move forward. At the final gulley, the loose snow was over a meter deep and extremely slippery. Here we realized the need for our crampons. We took many steps but moved not a foot forward, sliding right back into place on the powder snow and hailstones.

Our guide tried to go over a stony ridge but it was covered in verglas and too risky. He came back gruntling.

The winds had increased to a howling speed and snowfall had increased. The valley was covered in clouds and fog was rising up towards us.

It was time to go back.

Nitin was behind us on the way up. So the decision to go back was taken by our guide and I. When he caught up with us after what seemed like an eternity but was about 15 minutes only, he suggested we try to climb the gulley. Since we had already tried and decided, we told him no. With a gruntled protest, he let it go.

We couldn’t take all our stuff back to base camp at once so we decided to ferry some of the load next day.

Before we reached camp, our porters spotted us and came up to the last part to assist us with our bags.

At camp, we were treated to Kaju Kofta curry and roti, followed by pakode and chai, while it snowed outside.

Quite a way to celebrate a lousy retreat.

Next day, two of our porters asked for our snowboots and offered to retrieve our load from the hill that we had left behind the previous day, while Nitin and I took a walk over the grassy uplands.

That morning was sunny and it was a very pleasant walk. The view was spectacular. The sense of solitude was overwhelming. If the sun weren’t shining, you’d certainly get depressed. But shine the sun did, and far down below, we could see the Bhojparta forest, the tress on the left side of the river curled at the base like they were swaying in the wind, but still deeply rooted.

At one point, we found a deep print of the rear paws of a bear right in the centre of the trail. Even in that solitude, we were not alone.

In the evening there again there was rain and a hailstorm, but the night sky was clear and brilliantly lit up by stars. That night we stayed up late till about 12 a.m. The return was going to be easy – on the 2nd day, we would reach Uttarkashi.

Nitin was a bit disappointed that we had spent a small fortune and done nothing substantial. We had not even reached 5000m altitude. The return was also quite meek. The most thrilling part being on a snow slope on a fiercely windy day for a couple of hours. Nothing to write home about.

Had Araib been with us, we might have reached higher up, seen the crevasse field of the peak atleast, got caught in a storm, camped in the snow for a night. We couldn’t have summited, the snow condition was simply not feasible for a climb. But Araib pushes himself and we get pushed along because of him. On our own, both Nitin and I are leisurely animals, like wild horses. We run, but when imminent.

Had Araib been around, we might have reached base camp 2 days earlier. He certainly wouldn’t have allowed a rest day due to rain and we would have trekked till late evenings. We might have tried harder to establish camp 1. We would have shivered in our tents and Nitin could have hallucinated at camp 1 instead of having Kaju curry and pakodas at base camp. And the photographs would have been infinitely awesome.

But Araib was not there with us.

So Nitin and I sat down at a tea stall at Bhatwari and discussed the origins of Uttarakhandi surnames with a random stranger instead. When the shop owner said that he couldn’t make buttered buns for us, we did not settle for cream rolls or Parle-G. We asked him why he couldn’t make such a simple delicacy and got him a slab of the best butter available from a general store nearby so we could have buttered buns with our tea.

We slaughtered a lamb and had mutton curry at one of our camps when the shepherds in the forest gave us a little lamb who had got injured and would have died if not killed.

When the sewing on my shoes disintegrated after walking on the slushy trails and my feet developed blisters, I tried walking barefoot and, finding it very comfortable, walked barefoot for almost 5 KMs one day. Nitin tried the same next day successfully.

We photographed bear poo and tried to guess what he had had for dinner.

We chatted with our Nepali porters and shared food and cigarettes with them and heard stories from them. The eldest porter one evening would go foraging into the forest to get Choru roots for me when I complained of stomach ache. When we ran out of cigarettes, we shared their tobacco.

How one of the porters, in his pre-adolescent years, saw his villagers sacrifice animals at the village temple and one day he and his sister would catch hold of a stray cat and slay it at the altar when no one was looking.

Sure, we had a memorable time. But we missed the peak. By miles and miles.

Sure, we missed the peak. By miles and miles. But we had a memorable time.

The view of Bandarpunch, pic taken in 2014 from a chaani (Van Gujjar hut)

circa 2014...Bandaupunch from our tent

The first glimpse of Bandarpunch in 2019, on the way to Uttarkashi

Sukki village

When unpreparedness meets old age...

The tributary of Bhagirathi that originates from Bandarpunch glacier...we had to descend and trace this river to its source

at first camp, guide saab and kelimbers

a goat that got separated from its herd, on the way to base camp

More bakri, some stylish ones with Sadhna cut

Bandarpunch glacier

bear poo....seems like he had berries for supper

Himalayan Basil (Tulsi)

Bhojpatra Trees, growing like they were swaying in the breeze

Himalayan Poppy (no clue actually, just guessing! - Mandatory Himalayan prefix added for affect)

rest my friend, for the harder parts are yet to come

Guide saab and head porter getting tea served to them

Bhojparta tree, of the Raja Bhoj and Gangu Teli fame

Rest my friend, for the climb will surely get harder the higher we get

at load ferry point above base camp...base camp is way down on the right

Rest my friend, and wake up rejuvenated

During the walk on the uplands, the solitude, oh, the solitude

Bhojpatra forest down below (the white trees)

Bandarpunch glacier

a peak at mini Bandarpunch....the actual peak to be summited is behind this peak...a little projection is visible behind the right slope.. notice the size of the cornice