One-of-a-kind climber and mountaineer David Lama writes about his first ascent of the north-west face of the 6,155m Cerro Kishtwar in the Kashmiri Himalayas, India.
The tiny farming village of Sumcham is nestled deep in the Himalayas of Indian Kashmir. A small expedition consisting of Stef Siegrist, Denis Burdet and me are following a local man through the narrowest of alleys. The slimy ground twists and turns under my feet and the smoke hanging between the clay walls burns my eyes.
The local in question goes by the name of Raju and was one of the best donkey handlers on our expedition up the 6,155m Cerro Kishtwar. He kindly offered to host my two Swiss climbing partners and me in his house on our return, some very welcome shelter from a day of torrential rain and snow as it turned out. We clambered through a rectangular opening in the wall to enter a large and dark room.
Then I saw Raju wave to us and place a carpet down in the middle of the room. While my eyes were adjusting to the darkness, Raju brought a hot chai tea over that his wife had brewed for us. While we slurped on the tea with yak milk from little plastic cups, vivid images from our summit day on Cerro Kishtwar ran through my head.
That was the end of our expedition in the Kashmir Himalayas that lasted for almost six weeks. I remember the start as if it were yesterday – Stef Siegrist and I forged some plans for an expedition together and as soon as he had showed me a photo of Cerro Kishtwar, I was instantly set on it. Previously, only Brits Andy Perkins and Mick Fowler, along with their climbing partners, had set foot on this granite face of over a thousand metres high, at this virtually unknown 6,000m peak, and I wanted to go up this mountain.
The imposing granite tower looked like the perfect place for my first expedition in the Himalayas. I could learn a lot from Stef, as he has Himalayan experiences from his first acents on Arwa Tower and Thalay Sagar. Denis Burdet from Switzerland, another experienced alpinist, along with cameraman Rob Frost, would make our team complete.
After a summer spent climbing in the Alps, I found myself at Delhi airport at the start of September where my climbing partners were already waiting for me. Finally we were getting going! The bus which took us to the Kashmir Himalayas imprisoned us for three long days. The heat was oppressive. We killed the time to watching one film after another until all our laptop batteries were empty.
For almost 20 years, the region in which Cerro Kishtwar lies had been practically forgotten by climbers and mountaineers. Political trouble made it impossible to scale this imposing peak along with the other five- or six-thousand metre high summits in the region. Now taking the road from Kishtwar to Gulaghab we passed a few military checkpoints and never-ending amounts of barbed wire, but had no difficulty making the trip. We felt very assured and started early the next morning down in what the locals term 'Sapphire Valley'. Whilst wandering we encountered huge herds of sheep and goats. In the villages, all of which had Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists living peacefully together, we kept on being invited in for chai tea. After three days we had finally made it to our base camp.
The monsoon had blown its course for the year and the weather appeared to be improving. It was snowing less and less, while some evenings were almost completely dry. We took all our climbing gear past a huge cracked glacier to the ABC – advanced bace camp. Under a rocky wall we then built a small platform out of stones, just big enough for two tents.
Hoisting the stones around left us dizzy and our headaches only got worse from there. We were up at over 5,000m altitude for the first time and our bodies were letting us know. After we had laid the base for the ABC, we could take a few days' rest at the base camp. Charly Gabl, our weatherman from Innsbruck, promised that good weather was in store for the following week.
We were finally off. After all the lengthy preparations we could not await our first attempt on Cerro Kishtwar. From the ABC, we first of all crossed a long snow field that brought us into combined terrain of rock and ice. The rock was fragile and the 40cm of new snow that fell as we arrived made our progress incredibly tough. Stef led the way while Denis and I followed with our equipment. Not until half past eight in the evening, guided by our head lamps, did we reach the plateau on which we made Camp I.
After a short, cold night, Denis climbed up the 400m-long ice field early in the morning. After two demanding pitches in the rock we realised that we were too slow with all our equipment to make the direct way up the north face. We were now much more tempted by a great line of ice through the still-unconquered north-west face. We climbed back down to Camp I and decided to take the day off.
We reduced our baggage to the bare minimum and got up the next day as early as three in the morning. The icy cold of the Himalayan night had frozen our material solid. We melted them apart with water, warmed our climbing shoes on the gas cooker and then we were ready to go again. Climbing without haulbag made us much quicker. As the sun first started to glisten on the nearby peaks we were already at the start of the ice couloirs. I took over the lead and my expectations were not disappointed in the slightest. The ice, which was actually iced-over snow, was as soft as butter.
Every blow with the ice axe nestled into place, but ice screws wouldn't hold here. Every now and then I was able to place gear in the rock, but long distances between the safety points was the order of the day. Every few minutes I had to duck in my head and allow a shower of snow to come rushing over me at -25°C. Just before noon I finally made it onto the southern ridge. After a few short rock walls, I found myself at the summit's snow field. Inhale, move up – exhale, step up. Every single breath sent freezing dry air flying into our lungs. This made us cough and left a distinctly unpleasant pain in our chests. The next step: Inhale, move up – exhale, step up. There was not much further to go, nothing was going to stop us now. We achieved our goal in realising a bolt-free first ascent in Alpine style on this incredible mountain. Inhale, move up – exhale, step up. It was a tough routine, but every step brought us a little further up, until we couldn't go any higher. We were at the summit. Inhale – exhale.
Back in Sumcham, the day has come to leave. Early in the morning we loaded our equipment on our donkeys again. To thank Raju for his hospitality we wanted to hand him a few rupees but he told us immediately that he doesn't need money. “What does that mean?” was my first thought. Everyone needs a little money, a few Euro here or there don’t hurt us! Stef and Denis were also a little confused until slowly we started to realise that money has no value in this isolated region. Therefore I gave Raju my Gore-Tex jacket and Stef and Denis gave him a few climbing ropes. Then we started our way home to a world with a totally different mentality.
Photos: Stefan Schlumpf, Stephan Siegrist, Denis Burdet /// Red Bull Content Pool
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