Other than these sounds there was an eerie silence punctuated by bird sounds and the whole meadow was covered with blue primula and far in the distance one could often see blue sheep or Bharal scampering above in the snowfields reminding us of the presence of their hunter , the snow leopard being not too far away. Night brought about the interplay between the moon and it’s light on the gleaming white peaks of Nanda Devi East, Changuch, Kuchela and Nandalapak, Nandakot and Nandakhat for quite a while till the cloud cover came and the all covering darkness spread it’s wings. Next morning at 5 a.m. all the team members were out with their cameras and what a treat it was but the sad news came from the two Sherpas that the warm weather of the first week of June had caused rivulets to flow from the walls of the Longstaff col and the whole plan to climb the 19,500 feet wall was shelved due to the dangers presented by impending avalanches. Having sent away the porters in the attempt to climb Longstaff col which would have taken four to five days, retreat wasn’t possible without arranging for porters to be requisitioned from Martoli and two of the team members were despatched the same day to get help. There had been a snow fall the previous night and the resultant moisture caused white flowers to appear on the moss or lichen like plants covering the rocks. Having no other options of entertainment some team members started spreading out the equipment hauled all the way for the climb like ascenders or Jumars, descenders, crampons, snowshoes of Koflach and Scarpa make, the rolls of nylon rope. I knew that I had to take a close look at the ice wall from close which had been our main objective and I slowly climbed the soft wall of grass and blue flowers and reached the overhang from where I got a clear view of the snow field at the base of Nanda Devi East and the Longstaff col and photographed the whole scene at length. Satisfied I had got the whole scene on film I scampered down the slopes for a meal as I had become ravenously hungry in my climb of the slope.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 18:02:19 +0000
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