In subsequent years after the first visit, there were two important occasions in Suru valley for which I travelled there. One was an International Climbing Camp and the other was Cleaning Expedition to Nun Kun base. Apart from these I went for a day or two with many mountaineer friends from abroad to show them the dramatic Suru valley. The International Training Camp was held in 1989 under auspices of UIAA (International Union of Alpine Associations).

A number of world famous climbers and Indian mountaineers participated in it. They went to Nun Kun area from Shafat side and after training climbed some of the features in the massif. The camp was a great success. I paid a visit to the climbers at the base camp. The holding of this camp motivated us to start similar short courses for the youth of the Suru valley from 1992 onwards. We used to hold every year a couple of training programmes for the local youth especially from the villages of Panikhar, Tangole, and Parkachik. These programmes are being continued even now under the supervision of Kargil Tourist Office. The second programme was a cleaning expedition to Nun Kun area. This was launched in 1997. Over the years, the base camps from both the sides had become highly polluted. There were mounds of garbage everywhere. On the initiative of the Jammu & Kashmir Mountaineering and Hiking Club, the Indian Mountaineering Foundation sanctioned an environment cleaning programme. The project was supervised by late Commandant Hukam Singh and members of the Foundation along with the members of the Club participated in it. Over a hundred loads of tins, bottles, and other garbage was brought down. Perishable garbage was burnt and buried at the site. These cleaning expedition were subsequently carried out in many other mountain areas.

With the increase in mountaineering activities in the entire Suru valley, there were many dramatic events especially the ones connected with mountain rescue. I supervised these rescue attempts from Srinagar most of the time and personally participated in some of these missions. Thanks to Indian Air Force many precious lives were saved. The first dramatic rescue was undertaken in mid seventies. An Austrian expedition to Nun had faced an accident. One of the members had slipped and broken his pelvis. It was impossible to evacuate him by surface. The casualty was lying in a higher camp over 5000 metres high. Even the helicopter had a ceiling above which it could not fly. We used to have an arrangement with the Indian Air Force for casualty evacuation. After getting a wireless message through Police from Kargil, I contacted the Srinagar Air Base. They immediately despatched a cheetah helicopter piloted by Colonel Wadalia of AOP. The Air Force ones were not at that time very familiar with the terrain and as such the rescues were undertaken by the pilots of Army Air wing. Colonel Wadalia was supposed to be a green card holder which means he could fly in all weather conditions and was authorised to take his own decisions in a mission to save human lives. On reaching Nun area he landed at the base camp and asked for the detailed location of the casualty. First he made a dry run to the spot to see possibility of landing and taking off with the casualty. The height was too much and he felt that after landing he would not have enough power to take off with the casualty. He landed again at the base camp and stripped his chopper of all unessential items like the seats, oxygen cylinders and so on. He then left his co-pilot down and flew solo to the spot. After taking in the casualty he just got airborne and descended along the glacier to conserve power. At the base camp he refitted the aircraft, took his co-pilot on board, and flew back to Srinagar. The Austrian climber was flown back in a special Red Cross aircraft sent from Europe. For this feat Colonel Wadalia received a gallantry reward and ultimately retired as a General of the Army.

I must have flown myself over a dozen times to the Nun Kun area and beyond in IAF helicopters on rescue missions. One of the rescues I remember was of a German climber suffering from high-altitude sickness. He was climbing Kun peak and had been suddenly taken ill at the advance base camp. Early morning we flew straight to Kun advance camp and landed on a makeshift helipad. The mountaineers quickly brought the climber in a sleeping bag and loaded him on the back. His wife accompanied him. He was virtually unconscious and had turned blue. Immediately on take off, the pilot told me to give him oxygen which I did. The guy started profusely sweating as we descended towards Srinagar. As soon as we landed at the Army helipad in the Badami Bagh cantonment, he seemed to be fully recovered and walked out of the helicopter himself. After a check up in the Military hospital he was allowed to go. It was the most dramatic recovery I had seen. The best remedy for altitude sickness is always quick descent to lower altitude and a person gets dramatic recovery. The rescue missions continued without break and every season we would be undertaking at least half a dozen sorties for casualty evacuation. The cost of evacuation would be paid by the insurance companies or the concerned embassies in case of foreigners but the missions for Indian climbers were treated as mercy missions.

There were two more missions in which I personally participated. One was an aerial reconnaissance to locate five Austrian climbers missing on Kun and the other was the rescue of a French couple from Zanskar in winter. The two events were very exciting adventures. Both were bordering on ultimate risk and I remember every detail of these. There was also a dramatic recovery of the body of a young Japanese climber who had fallen in a crevice on Durung Drung glacier near Pensi la by HAWS. I will describe these in the next episode.

(To be continued)