Shipton's Lost Valley

by Martin Moran

Part 3: On the Satopanth

On breasting the lateral moraine of the Satopanth, we gained our first glimpse of the col we had come so far to cross. Sheltered close under the massive 7138m hulk of Chaukhamba, the pass looked hazily distant and insignificant in scale, but even from 13 km away we could decipher a considerable ice fall guarding its approaches. To our west, the line curved off far into the Gangotri massif and to our not an array of unclimbed peaks and faces beckoned, some attractively accessible via snow couloirs, others close approaching big wall status in the height and steepness of their granite walls; all of them so far saved from the predations of western climbers.

We now battled through dwarf willow scrub along the lateral moranie for 5 km passing directly under the north wall seracs of Nilkanth. The summer grazing alp of Majna at 4200m offered the ideal camp ground, save that spring snow completely covered the flats, forcing us to pitch camp on the sloping moraine. Thereafter, a near continuous snow cover on the main glacier allowed us to link further remnants of moraine without recourse to hopping and sliding over ice and boulders. With an early morning start we could enjoy simple travel on solid neve. This, combined with continuously clear and fine weather, had already justified our choice to go in the pre-monsoon season.

At the holy lake of Satopanth Tal, we met another holy man who told us that he was living on sun and air, a diet which we quickly supplemented by surplus nuts and raisins. The last thin strips of grazing ground at Sunkunni and Surajkunni were smothered in deep snowfields and just beyond we made our decisive camp some 2 km from the base of the col at a height of 4650m. The porters returned from here with Pandey and we were left to contemplate our first real commitment of the enterprise, the gaining of the col.