EARLY EXPLORATIONS AND MOUNTAINEERING IN INDIAN HIMALAYAS© Ashish Kaul
Jan 20, 2000
Surprisingly, it was secret agents that did the really close studies of the Great Himalayan chain. That was the only way to gain access into those snowy folds in 1865. People with the right kind of appearance, were trained by J. T. Walker and T. G. Montgomerie to penetrate the borders. It was much like what William Moorcraft and Hyder Young Hearsey had done in 1812, disguised as fakirs. The secret agents were taught to use the sextant and assess altitude on the basis of the boiling point of water. They learnt to take bearings by the stars, measured distances by counting their paces and used a Buddhist rosary of 100 beads ( not the correct 108 beads ! ) to measure. All instruments were carefully concealed in the hollow of a walking stick or in prayer cylinders or some amulet. Disguised, they penetrated deep into the Himalayas and Karakoram - Nepal, Tibet and even Hindu Kush and the Pamirs. Some would return after years, others would be taken prisoners and some would just vanish. Yet there were some like Hari Ram who set off from Darjeeling, crossed Nepal and reached Shigatse in South East Tibet and explored the Everest region. Or Nain Singh, who managed to reach Lhasa. Such observations coupled with many exploration reports were invaluable for cartographers for drafting the first maps of the remote maps of Asia. Travelers in the 1830s, visited Ladakh, Garhwal, Kashmir and Baltistan. Joseph Hooker explored the mountains of Sikkim. Later, Adolf Hermann and Robert Schlaginweit studied ice and rock conditions and in 1855 even reached an altitude of 6785 m on Abi Gamin in Garhwal. Soon Henry Haversham, Godwin Austin ( a Survey official ) crossed the Baltoro Glacier. In 1882 - 83, British alpine climber WW Graham, accompanied by Swiss guide Joseph Imboden, went to Garhwal and then to the Kangchenjunga region in Sikkim on a climbing campaign. In 1887, Colonel Francis Younghusband started from Sinkiang, crossed by the Karakoram via Mustagh Pass and entered British India. In 1892, William Martin Conway had a small climbing expedition in the Karakoram. Soon explorations and climbing started multiplying rapidly. Even though the foundation of Alpine Climbing, with the ascent of Mt Blanc had happened some decades ago, mountaineering remained in its infancy. In fact the notable Matterhorn fell only in 1865. Everest and the Himalayas were then considered beyond man. In fact when Graham's ascent of Kabru ( over 24,000 feet ) was reported, there was disbelief. An officer of Survey of India reportedly told Francis Younghusband that Graham must have mistaken his peaks no man cold go beyond 22,000 feet !
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