Retracing the Footsteps of Frank Smythe

"... To us the Bhyunder Valley will always remain the Valley of Flowers. It is
a place of escape for those wearied of modern civilisation.. … the lover of
beauty and solitude could find peace in the Valley of Flowers. He would
discover joy and laughter in the meadows; the stars would be his nightly
canopy; he would watch the slow passing of the clouds; he would share the
sunset and dawn with God.…”

Thus wrote Frank Smythe in “Kamet- Conquered” introducing to the world what
we today call as “Valley of Flowers”.

Frank Sydney Smythe; almost anyone who visits or thinks of visiting the “Valley of
Flowers” comes across this name. To most, it remains a name.

Few years back, only after reading the volumes written by this legendary
explorer did I realize what I had been missing out on- a brilliant combination of
adventure and poetic reflections, captured with inspiring details that can fire
one’s imaginations.

Immersed in his journeys and inspired to sample those experiences, I floated a

thread on the Internet forums about retracing his trails. The idea was to revisit
the route he followed during his famous exploration in 1937, vividly captured in
his book- “The Valley of Flowers”.

The team got formed in the virtual world of internet - a motley crew of extreme
variety in background, location, profession, age and experience in the high
mountains.

With Madhur Lakhani joining in from Mumbai and Vishwanath Radhakrishnan

joining in from Bengaluru we had a pan-Indian team. Among the members from
the NCR, Arun Negi, Bharat Tomar, Ravin Bhatt and Suraj Mal were the younger
lot while Rajesh Jadhav, I were the senior most in our early forties.

We aimed to complete the trek in the first half of June of 2010. The route we
were to follow was divided into two distinct stages. In the first stage we planned
to follow the traditional route to “Valley of Flowers” and then going beyond over
the “Bhyunder Khal” to reach the Bankund Glacier. In the second stage we were to
traverse the Bankund Glacier upstream, cross the hidden pass- “Gupt Khal” and
reach Badrinath to end the trek.

Stage 1
Govind Ghat(1700M)- Ghangharia (3100M)(13 Kms)- Tipra Kharak (3700M)(10
Kms)-Bhyunder Icefall Camp(4300M) ( 6 Kms)- Bhyunder Khal Base (4600M)
(4Km)- Bhyunder Khal(5100M)- Rataban(E) Glacier(4500M)(8Kms)

Govindghat was teeming with activity at the beginning of the pilgrim season. Sikh
pilgrims of all ages, sizes and sects were busily moving about. New shops were
being setup and an unending stream of cars was pouring into the parking lots.
We chanced upon an auspicious beginning at the very start. The“Guru’s
Procession” marking the opening of the Holy shrine at Hemkund Sahib started at
the same time as we started off!

Fighting the usual fatigue of the “First Day”, we reached the Kanjilla Camping
Grounds well before sunset. Ghangharia was still 600 Meters away, the GMVN
signboard said.

Up ahead onto the northwest, the two lofty pinnacles of Bhyunder Gorge, became
a dark outline as the sun went down. Beyond that imposing gateway was our
target for the next day- the Valley of Flowers.

Changes at Ghangharia were a sad surprise compared to what one saw twenty
years earlier. Larger concrete structures had replaced little shops selling photos
and trinkets. The lovely riverside was now replaced with a bustling pony stand.
The stench of mule-dung had now replaced the sweet smell of wild flowers.

We entered the Valley of Flowers after the usual procedures at the forest check-
gate after Ghangharia. As the valley opened up one could see the Rataban Peak
onto the North East. The Bhyunder-Khal lay on its northern flank, faintly visible
from where I was standing at the entry of the valley.

A few hundred meters later, as the trail turned right at Bamanidaur, one could
see the entire valley stretching eastwards all the way till Tipra Kharak camping
grounds. To the west of this point, a sharply rising trail takes one to Khunt Khal-
the moderate pass that connects the Valley of Flowers with Hanumanchatti and
then onto Badrinath. Smythe used this pass to crossover to Badrinath during his
maiden visit to the valley in 1931.

A gently undulating trail leads through verdant slopes from Bamanidaur to the
Tipra Kharak. The rise of elevation is so gentle one barely notices it. At the peak
of the monsoons, it would perhaps be one of the most colorful walks on earth.
Dotted with bushes of Rhubarb the Tipra Camp has a pretty setting- the Tipra
Glacier to the East, the Khuliaghata Ridge to the North, The Spatashringi Ranges
to the South and the sprawling meadows of the Valley of Flowers to the West.
Smythe mentions bears and Yeti footprints during his stay in the area. Even we,
had various accounts of bear-vision and bear-sounds to narrate about, the next
morning.

From Tipra camp, the faint trail to Bhyunder Khal follows the right-lateral
moraine of the Tipra glacier. After reaching the point where Rataban and Tipra
Glaciers meet, we were to follow the right bank of Rataban Glacier in a Northerly
direction till we encountered the Bhyunder Icefall.

By lunchtime we reached the confluence point of the glaciers, a campsite with

loads of waste in form of rusted cans lying under the rocks. The post-lunch
enthusiasm was neutralized as soon as we started climbing the exposed grassy
slope on the right bank of the Rataban Glacier. The Ghori Glacier (the other
branch of the Tipra Glacier) was looking eerie behind us, under the fast-gathering
afternoon clouds.
After an hour, on our right, the bulk of the Bhyunder Icefall slowly revealed itself
from under a misty haze. The scale of it is too impressive for a diminutive
observer. One goes awestruck looking at a mighty display of raw power! Tons of
masses of ice-slabs and seracs tumbling down in suspended animation!

We found a Campsite on the ridge beside a small rivulet of ice-melt. The

Bhyunder Icefall was directly in front. We were in our 3rd day into the mountains
and the altitude was 4300 Mtrs. Thankfully all of us were acclimatizing fast.

We wanted to gain some distance during the next day so that a base camp could
be established much closer to the Pass. The challenge was to get down to the
glacier bed and cross its width and then climb up again onto the top of the right
lateral moraine of the Bhyunder Icefall. The target was a raised platform under
the rock-buttresses connecting the Rataban and Nilgiri massifs.

Getting down to the glacier bed required some strenuous step cutting and rope
fixing. Two hours later we gained the right bank close to the icefall. After another
hour of laborious climb we finally reached what we called as “The Balcony Camp”.

It provided a 360-degree view of the panorama around- the Nilgiri to the north,
the VoF and Tipra Glacier to the south, the Khuliaghata ridge to the west and the
Bhyunder Icefall to the east. A low cloud hung everywhere truncating the view.
Pretty though it was, it filled our mind with foreboding about the oncoming
weather conditions.

Within an hour of starting the trek the next day, we were on a near vertical slope
that led up in the general direction of Bhyunder-Khal. At about 4900 Meters, the
view opened wide as we reached a snow plateau. The route that went east was a
tricky traverse with some areas marked with rock-falls from above and the slope
falling at an alarming angle to our right.

After a few hundred meters, we took a northerly turn and saw a prominent
depression directly ahead. The GPS pointed straight towards this depression. We
were having the first view of Bhyunder-Khal.

We reached the Pass at 1240 Hrs. At 1242 Hrs, a storm hit us, its speed
increasing with furious rapidity. Soon came the heavy snowfall and the loud
thunderclaps. The altitude read 5092 Meters.

In the snowfield below we came upon a long crevasse, which required us to get
roped up. The storm abated an hour later, only after we had safely regrouped on
the left bank of Rataban(East) Glacier.

We had trekked for six hours and the water supplies were woefully low. We
didn’t have the morale to cross another six kilometers to Bank-kund lake camp
before sundown. Tents were pitched on the glacier floor.

Far ahead was a bounding ridge with lofty peaks and hanging glaciers. We could
see the Thur Udyar route to Devban Plateau that Smythe describes in his diaries.
High above the wisps of misty clouds it was like a paved road leading skywards.
Stage 2
Rataban(E) Glacier(4500M)- Bank-Kund Lake(4500M)(6Kms)- Bankund
Bend(4900M)(6Kms)- Garh Camping Grounds(5430M)(8Kms)-Gupt Khal
Base(5700M)(4Kms)- Gupt Khal(5835M)- Nakthani Snowfields(5650M)(3 Kms)-
Nakthani Glacier Snout(4950M)(6 Kms)- Badrinath(3100M)(18Kms trek and 4
Kms Drive)

We started a bit late next morning. Starting off on the left bank of Rataban
Glacier, we reached the Bank-kund Junction after three kilometers of easy walk.

It was a vast amphitheatre of a glacier field. The Bank-kund glacier described a

gigantic curve and led on to our east towards Ghamsali. Two other glaciers were
joining in at that point, one from which we came- The Rataban and another
slightly to our west and left- the glacier from the Nilgiri Parvat. Right ahead in
front of us to the North was the wall of the Kagbhushand Mountain.

Somber brownness of the glacier pervaded everywhere made bleaker by the

pregnant clouds overhead. Here and there one could see dark-green puddles of
glacial pools.

By noon we had re-grouped upon a large heap of boulders on the bed of the
Bank-Kund glacier. A new challenge had cropped up. We weren’t able to locate
the Bank-Kund Lake!!

The glacial pools around us were nowhere close to the picture of the beautiful
lake in Mr Kapadia’s book. After extended scouting around, the lake was finally
located on top of the right lateral ridge near the Nilgiri Icefall.

It was a little oasis of green amidst all that brown. True to Mr Kapadia’s account,
birds were indeed chirping and the grass was a spongy foam mattress, which
allowed us to compensate for the discomfiture of the previous nights!

Planning the route the next day, it appeared unnecessary to get down to the
glacier floor and then ford the way up through heaps of rocks. We chose the
inviting slope up a gentle gradient on the ridge we were standing upon.

After the first bend to the left the vista changed dramatically revealing a wide
valley from whence came the Bank-Kund Glacier. A few hundred meters ahead
we came to a point where the ridge ended abruptly, cut in by a steep snow slope
coming from above.

The icy slope was tricky. A fall would mean a short cut to the glacier floor couple
of hundred feet below. During the next hour, Suraj had an unfortunate slip and
was on his way down before he self-arrested.

It was late afternoon when we reached the top of the left bank after a frustrating
kilometer of boulder hopping on the glacier bed. We would now remain on this
side of the glacier till we reached the snow flats of Garh camping ground.

Thankfully the ridge provided a much easier and faster trail. Soon it vanished
into a rocky slope that cut in from above. We were still 800 Meters away from
the planned campsite, when we decided to call it a day.
A bright sun next morning revealed the spectacular panorama around. The wall
of the Nilgiri Ridge stood tall across the glacier, its top shining with the first rays
of the sun. The shapely Kagbhushand stood silhouetted against the glittering
golden of the sun to the Southeast.

Anxiety about the route got resolved when, after some careful boulder hopping
in the rocky slope, we emerged on a vast sloping field of snow, extending for
several kilometers.

The GPS beep indicated that this field was our intended campsite of the previous
day. A beautiful campsite probably used by Smythe and Kapadia’s teams. The
divine spectacle afterwards made us forget the travails of the previous days.

The Bank-Kund icefall was the first recognizable landmark. A massive snowfield
extended towards left on top of the icefall. Far away was a ridge defining its
boundary. It looked like a raised mound of brown in all that whiteness. That
seemed to be our target- The Gupt-Khal ridge!

If one trained the eyes up in the northern skies, one could see two distinct
pyramids. The one to the left was the Kamet, the tallest of the mountains in the
Zaskar ranges and to the right- The Mana, both 7thousanders. The Mandir massif
blocked our view to the West to our left. Devban peak was somewhere invisible
above the tall slopes to our right. The Nilgiri with its sprawling arms towered
behind us, to our south.

Many hours later, after a long trudge on a gentle slope, we reached the Garh
campgrounds at 5430 Meters. The Gupt-Khal ridge wore fiery clouds to our far
west. The lovely play of light and shadow in the setting sun made the atmosphere
surreal.

Little snowflakes filled the air as soon as we started the walk next morning on
the long medial moraine that led north. Our idea was to avoid the snowfield as
far as possible and then take a westerly turn to our left, which would lead us
straight to Gupt-Khal.

On the giant snowfield, aeons of winds had sculptured the surface into various
patterns of waves as one sees on sand dunes in the deserts.

Soon we saw an interesting spectacle- Rock mushrooms! Those were rocks, the
size of a small car that were robustly resting on thick stems of ice about three
feet tall. Evidently, the entire snowfield had melted and reduced its level by
about three feet since the time the rocks came to rest on these fields, probably
around the times that Smythe came visiting.

An hour later, the snowfall increased intensity and we had to camp there at the
feet of the Guptkhal ridge, albeit reluctantly.

It was our highest camp in the trek. The worry was not the altitude, for all in the
team seemed to be in fine fettle. The worry was about the relentless snowfall!
We had to scale the imposing wall of the Gupt-Khal ridge and get on to the other
side- our easiest way to safety. We could do that easily but only if the snow
allowed us to!

Jaisingh, the lead guide, started off for cutting the route and fixing the rope as
soon as the snowfall stopped around 10 in the morning. Within two hours we got
an OK from him to follow to the top.

Strangely, the sky began clearing up just as we started off towards the ridge. It
was a near vertical ascent and all of us focused on holding on to the rope and
putting our feet on the next step ahead. Ahead is probably misleading, because
the next step was sometimes chest high. We later calculated the climb to be
about 400 feet.

At about 1300 Hours we reached the top! There was no jubilation or victory cry
as one usually finds in such moments. Everyone was just happy and thankful. It
was a mixture of too many emotions, anxiety about the route and weather ahead,
the joy of being there at 5835 meters and an utter sense of thanksgiving!

As Negi and Bharat wrote later “We could do it because the Mountain allowed us
to”.

How true! We might conquer and re-conquer the loftiest summits and the most
inaccessible cranny of the Grand Mountain; but whenever and however we do it,
we must remember, it is an act of permission by the Himalaya. It’s not an act of
submission, for if it wishes, it can strike off a puny man with the faintest brush.

The panorama from the top was spellbinding. To the North was the route that
Smythe had followed over the pyramid of Pk6600 on his way to The Mana. To the
south were the Pk 6029, the Mandir Parvat and its two lesser subsidiaries. To our
East, the Mana stood tall. Garh camping ground was under the shades of the
clouds far away in the South East.
The Alakananda valley and the peaks flanking it dominated the view west. We
could recognize the Neelkanth, Chaukhamba and Arwa Tower. To the South-west
and North west were the two glaciers that emanate from the Nakthani
Snowfields- The Southern and Northern Nakthani Glaciers respectively.

It was a tricky descent through a near-vertical gulley between two imposing rock
walls. It was an individual ordeal for each of us as we descended down a route
far steeper than the one we used to climb up.

We had crossed Gupt-Khal and were now on the highest parts of the Nakthani
snowfields. I had never seen anything so utterly virgin, serene and surreal where
the colors of nature created such variety of illusions.

It must have been five in the morning when we heard wailing in pain in the
porters’ tent and then there was some commotion that followed. One of the
porters – Prem Singh Shahi had developed severe stomach pain and was
screaming in agony. We suspected complications because of the altitude and two
more porters were released off their loads to help the sick get down quickly.
Soon we were on the boulder filled right bank of the Northern Nakthani Glacier,
inches from a dreadful Nakthani snowfall. Afterwards it was a painful struggle on
the right bank, filled with large snow covered boulders.

We could locate a probable campsite where the Glacier converted into a thin
stream. At about six in the evening, with the snow falling hard, we set up the
tents.

Within an hour came the sad news that the sick Premsingh succumbed to his
illness on the way down.

The mood in the camp was a queer mixture of sadness, frustration, anxiety and
anger. There was no sign of altitude sickness, nor there was any accident. Having
weathered the worst of the weathers and now on our way to our homes, the end
of the trek barely few hours away, we had lost a man!

Premsingh succumbed to a punctured appendix as the post mortem revealed

later.

We had run out of our supplies and already lost a man. The mountains had struck
a decisive blow to the team morale.

We navigated the entire way from Nakthani snout till Badrinath the next day
through unforgiving and unmarked terrain, through changing moods of weather
and unsure trails that threatened to disappear frequently. After 8 hours and 18
Kilometers we finally reached Mana Village at 1700 in the evening.

News had been pouring in about the latest victims of the Himalayan weather.
There had been lives lost at Mount Trishul, a heli-rescue was going on at Mayali
pass. We seemed to have suffered the least on account of the unexpected
weather.

This was an experience unlike any other that I have experienced so far in the
Himalayas. There was a bit of everything to taste- sunny days, avalanches, rock
falls, vertical ascents, animal sightings, glacier crossings, near vertical rappelling,
crevasse traverses and blinding blizzards! We had our moments of ecstasy and
hours of grief.

Just to repeat a route with modern information and gadgetry was such an
experience! What romance and adventure would it have been to carve out a
virgin route almost a century back, one wonders. Its one thing to read up the
Shiptons and Tillmans and Smythe’s of the world. It’s a different thing to sample
their experiences!