CORRESPONDENCE

1st January 2005

(A): To Mr. Harish Kapadia
Editor
The Himalayan Journal

Re: Regarding claim  of first ascent of Lampak I (South Lampak) (6325 m) by  expedition led by Dr. P. M. Das.

Dear Mr  Kapadia,

Happy New Year.

I draw your attention to  the expedition report published in the Himalayan Journal Vol. 60 page 54 (Article 9), on Lampak group of peaks by Dr. P. M. Das under the heading  ‘A journey into the northern fringe of the Nanda Devi bio-sphere reserve’.  Dr. Das’  claim of first ascent of Lampak I (Lampak South) seems to me discordant as the peak was first ascended by a group of mountaineers from West Bengal in the year 1969 under the leadership of P. Chakrobarty. Report of this ascent  was published in the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute Journal , No. VI,  page 47.

This may please be clarified.

With best wishes.

Regards.
 K K Ray

 (B) Letter from Dr. P M Das to Harish  Kapadia

13 April 2005

Dear Harish,

Kindly  refer to your letter dated 3rd April 2005 with the enclosed article ‘First Ascent of South Lampak’,  by ‘Leader of the Expedition’,  appearing in the HMI Journal at the time. No, I have not received any letter before this from you earlier wherein you had forwarded a letter from a team from Bengal about its ascent prior to ours. I have got the HMI Journal examined very minutely by my entire summit team members and have the following comments to offer:.

1. This is the first mountaineering article I have seen in any journal where the author is referred to as ‘Leader of the Expedition’. (No name?). The first line mentioning the date of Murray’s Scottish Himalayan Expedition as 1963 is incorrect. Please refer to HJ Vol. 16.
2. The claim of first ascent of a mountain as per accepted norms has to be sustained and authenticated and the onus of proving the claim lies on the climbers. In this case no account appears in the Himalayan Journal of  the Himalayan Club or in the Indian Mountaineer of the IMF which are the reputed journals of India. One fails to apprehend as to why the leader of the 1969 team did not insist on recording their ascent in these reputable journals of the country or elsewhere abroad (Publication in  The HMI  Journal is not an authentication of a claim).
3. The HMI Journal Vol VI article does not contain a single photograph of the mountain, leave alone that of the upper sections of the same.
4. Prior to the expedition we had several enquiries at the IMF and were informed that there was no official report on record of an ascent of Lampak South. The Himalayan Journal also had none.
5. As far as the article itself is concerned, the description of the climb above Camp II has left us confused, especially regarding location of their Camp III, description of climbing done and route taken on the final day. We had opened the route prior to the summit climb and despite so, the final portion from the rock self to the summit took six hours of almost continuous climbing. Mind you, ours was a very fit summit team including two very experienced climbers who had recently been high on Everest, two others who were seasoned Himalayan climbers in their thirties and an experienced HAP. Also remember that we had only a few days ago climbed to the summit of Lampak North and were therefore superbly fit. On the other hand, their claims to have accomplished this feat in just four hours of climbing on difficult virgin slopes on which they had not set foot before! That too  in the post- monsoon season when the ice is more exposed than in the pre-monsoon season and would require
   more technical climbing.
6. As mentioned above, a claim needs to be authenticated / substantiated with as many photographs as possible. The absence of a single photograph in the article of the HMI Journal is noticeable. Contrast this with the fact that I had submitted as many as 20 photographs to substantiate our claim!
7. However, I would be the last person to deprive any other climbing team from establishing a genuine claim of a first ascent prior to mine; provided it is proved beyond doubt. Therefore you may like to ask the leader of the Asansol team to send me a set of convincing photographs which will be studied impartially and if are satisfied , we would recommend the records to be amended. Not otherwise.

I am addressing this letter to you and not to Tushar Sarkar or Kankan K Ray , since they have not addressed themselves to me but you may like to convey the relevant extracts of this letter to them as is required.
With best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Dr. P M Das.

( C ) Kindly refer to your letter addressed to Mr. Harish  Kapadia, Editor HJ in connection with the claim of the first ascent of Lampak I.

Mr. Kapadia asked a few queries on the subject. I am already in touch with the organisation for a proper reply. With due respect to all concerned, I could not resist myself from highlighting a few points on this issue  which you will certainly appreciate.

1. The date of Scottish climb is simply a printing mistake and no body had taken care on it further.

2. The Indian Mountaineer started its publication only after 1977 and HJ publishes only a selected and limited number of articles and this system is still being followed.
3. Constraint of space and economy may sometime deter publication of photographs. (So far information collected, photographs of the upper slopes of the peak were submitted to IMF just after the ascent in 1969). These may be checked with the IMF records.
4. Apart from the report published in HMIJ & MLA’s (Mountain Lovers Association) own journal the information of ascent are available in ‘The Himalayan Hand Book’ by Joydeep Sarkar and ‘Exploring the Hidden Himalaya’ by Soli S Mehta and Harish Kapadia. A Bengali Book  titled  Lampak was also published in 1971 by a member of the team Chowdhury Abdur Rahim who by profession was once a Judge of the High Court of the State.
5. The team can only clarify the technical points raised regarding timings themselves.

 

Lastly I am astonished to know that how a question of post mortem of a claimed ascent may arise after 26 years (when nobody had contradicted the claim before, even by IMF).
The leader of the team Prasanta Chackrobarty was a very experienced and knowledgeable mountaineer of the State, but unfortunately he passed away a few years back. However I am endorsing a copy of this letter to the summiteers of Lampak I, Pranesh Chowdhury and Milan Sengupta who were also very tough and experienced mountaineers of the past, for their comments on this issue.
Regards

Yours sincerely,

Kankan K Ray

 

(D) Letter from Ramesh Sharma of Punjab Police expedition team (on behalf of Dr. P M Das) to K K Ray. in reply  to  above letter.

30-5-05

Dear Shri Kankan K Ray,

Kindly refer to your letter endorsed to Dr. P M Das, President of Punjab police Adventure Sports Club dated 21st May 2005.

Dr. Das is not available for a few weeks and has asked me to write to you in order to avoid delay, after discussing each of your points mentioned in the endorsement.

1. As already mentioned, the IMF intimated no recorded ascent of Lampak I prior to our expedition. The IMF and HC web sites and records of Alpine Club which bore list of unclimbed peaks reported Lampak I as unclimbed all these years. The HJ may not have published your article in 1969/1970 but how do you explain that it did not do so for 26 years? And this was a major virgin peak! It is therefore not understood why you did not take up the matter with these authorities to record your claim in all these years.
2. The book Exploring the Hidden Himalaya by Mehta and Kapadia does make a mention of a reported ascent. This book is mentioned in the bibliography of HJ article by Dr. Das.

 

3. It is not our desire to conduct a post mortem of your claim  In fact, it is the Editor of the HJ (Mr. H Kapadia) who asked for comments/reaction to the article written in the HMI Journal. This was faithfully done in letter and spirit.

   We wish your climbing association many more happy years of climbing.

Yours sincerely,

 Ramesh Sharma
Joint secretary
Lampak Peaks Expeditions-2003.

(E) Letter from K K Ray to Harish Kapadia cc to Ramesh Sarma in reply.
29 June 2005.

My dear Mr. Kapadia,

Firstly, I must apologise for writing this letter with considerable delay. I received a letter from Mr. Ramesh Sharma, Secretary cum treasurer Punjab police Adventure Sports Club  where in he on behalf of Dr. P M Das furnished a few points in support of their claim of first ascent of Lampak I . It appears very unconvincing to me for reasons as stated under:

1. In the year 1969/70 there was no systematic record keeping in the IMF, If it was so the report submitted by Mountain Lovers Association for their expedition to Lampak I in 1969 could have been easily traced as it was itself approved and financed by IMF and report submitted.
2. Since 1960 there were a continuous flow of expeditions from the country whose number now reaches to nearly 1500. It is not possible for a single annual Journal to accommodate all the information in it.
3. Lastly, I think the information of ascent available in the following books and journals are more than enough to establish the fact of the first ascent of the peak in 1969 of the Bengal team.

References available to first ascent of Lampak South, 6325 m

1. The Alpine Club: Himalayan Index: see www.alpine-club.org.uk

Lampak                                     6325 m       20751 ft      30^o37’29”   79^o56’39”   No. = 4413

Year  Status Route     Journal  Year            Volume Issue Page                                       

1969 as      SW Ridge    AAJ     1970                17      44       186,187                     

1969 as      SW Ridge    AJ        1970               75    319        194                            

1969 as      SW Ridge    HJ        1969               29                  182                  

(as-ascent)

1. B. The Himalayan Journal, Vol. 29, p. 182

Table:

9. South Lampak Mountain Lover’s Association, P. Chakraborty         1^st Ascent               21.9.1969

 (20750 ft.)

6. The Himalayan Club Newsletter, No. 27, page 4
7. South Lampak (20,750 ft) – was climbed on 21^st September by the Kalla Glacier Expedition – sponsored by Mountain Lover’s Association, Asansol and led by P. Chakraborty.

Base Camp was established at 15, 500 ft and Camp I at 16,400 ft. After a number of attempts from Camp II to achieve the saddle between South Lampak and Pk. 21,340 ft, the team  turned its attention to the South West ridge and after establishing Camp III at 18, 250 ft just below a towering spur,  traversed the ice-wall and followed the ridge to the summit. The summiteers were M. Sengupta, P. Chaudhury and Sherpas Pasang Tchering, Sim Dorji and Ang Chhutar.

194. Similar information is printed in the Himalayan Handbook, by Joydeep Sircar, Published, at Kolkatta, 1969, p. 85, American Alpine Journal, 1970, p. 186, The Alpine Journal, Vol. 75, 1970, p. 194. . Exploring the Hidden Himalaya, page 60,   by Soli S Mehta and  Harish Kapadia,  West Bengal Mountaineers Hand Book,  by Kankan K Ray

A full article on the expedition was published in the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute Journal, Vol. IV,  p. 47

Yours sincerely,

 K K Ray

 

(Correspondence on this subject is now closed)