Kumaun (Articles)

• 1968 Climbing in Milam

  In 1968, when I was still at the University of Bombay, studying for a B.Com. degree, I was involved in the Hikers’ and Mountaineers’ Society. It organised its first expedition during May-June that year. more details…

• 1969 The Sunderdhunga-Tharkot Expedition

  The yearly itch for the mountains started troubling us as early as January and we willingly succumbed to it. more details…

• 1974 Rescue on Devtoli

  It was a cool morning and as the first rays of the sun entered the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, I was being tied to an improvised stretcher and carried on strong shoulders of our Garhwali porters.  more details…

• 1976 After Devtoli Accident

  THE HELICOPTER circled thrice over the roof of the hospital. Lying on a stretcher on the floor of the copter I could see the giant red cross painted on the roof-tops to keep off the enemy planes.  more details…

• 1977 Chiring We

  For an expedition in the summer of 1977, we selected the un-explored Kalabaland glacier in the eastern Kumaon.  more details…

• 1979 Mountain of Long Life – Chiring We

  CHIRING WE is a shy mountain. It remained unheared of till recently and refused to allow itself to be seen by human eyes at close quarters.  more details…

• 1996 Valley of Friends

  Some associations in life last a very long time. For almost three decades now, I have been trekking and climbing with the support of the people of a particular valley in the Kumaon, the Saryu valley. more details…

• 1982 Summer of 82 – Darma valley

  AS FAR as one can remember people have travelled over mountain valleys, ranges and passes. more details…

• 1992 Fires on Mountain-Panch Chuli

  A mountaineer never retires. In a sense he never hangs his boots to call it a day. As he grows in years he continues with trekking and loving the hills . . more details…

• 1992 Accident on Panch Chuli

  We had completed the ascent of Panch Chuli II, the highest peak of the group. But with a few days in hand we changed track and decided to climb peaks in the Pyunshani valley. more details…

• 2005 Story of the Nanda Devi Sanctuary

  After the first joys in victory came a feeling of sadness that the mountain had succumbed, that the proud head of the goddess was bowed. more details..

• 2000 Nanda Devi ‘The Bliss Giving’ Goddess

  The twin peaks of Nanda Devi (7,816 m) and Nanda Devi East (7,434 m) of Kumaun stand majestically in the centre of a ring of mountains, distinct and beautiful, particularly as the first and the last rays of the sun caress their summits. more details…

• 2001 Nanda Devi Juggernaut

  With these simple words of veneration, H.W. Tilman and Noel Odell completed the saga of finding a route to the summit of this charismatic mountain. They were standing then on the highest point in the British Empire, ‘where the sun never sets’ . more details…

• 2018 Nanda Devi As I Saw It

  It was a cool morning of June 1974, and as the first rays of the sun gently warmed the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, porters were tying me to an improvised stretcher to carry me down. The route was narrow and covered with scree, and each wobble induced an agonized scream from me. more details…

• 2008 Many a Slip – Pindari By Burjor Banaji

  ‘Hey Harish, I’ve found the path’ .. This as i stepped over the lip of a deep rock filled gully in the Kumaun. more details…

• 2005 The Bagpipe Treks

  An advertisement for a good whiskey shows two friends, sitting by a fireplace, sipping whiskey. “At one point, after few sips and you will hear 100 bagpipes playing in the Hills”, one of them says. . more details…