My adventures in Suru valley are so exciting and numerous that I could pen down a complete book on these like Fanny Bullock Workman. However, as mentioned in my last episode, there were at least three more events which are etched in my memory due to the thrill and excitement of the moment.

The first is about the tragic death of a Japanese climber on Durung Drung glacier. It was sometime in early eighties that two Japanese climbers had been given permission to climb Z-8 peak above the glacier on the other side of Pensi la. They were accompanied by Yusuf Zaheer as the liaison officer. One morning as I entered the office in Tourist Centre, Srinagar, I got an urgent wireless message from Kargil. It was from Yusuf Zaheer and stated that one of the climbers had fallen into a crevice. They had tried their best to pull him up but failed. I immediately contacted the Air Force base in Srinagar and gave them the message with exact location. In just 20 minutes I got a call back from the ATC that a cheetah helicopter was on way to the area. This was probably the fastest ever rescue launch which I remember! The helicopter reached the spot after an hour and half but the pilot was informed that the climber was already dead. He had been in the crevice more than two days and was frozen solid in a block of ice. It was impossible to pull him up.

The climber was the only son of his parents who were based in Hong Kong. They had flown in to Srinagar immediately on getting the news. According to the liaison officer it was impossible to retrieve and bring back the body. It would need a full fledged expedition to do so. I mentioned this to Colonel Narinder Kumar, the famous Everester, who was the Commandant of the HAWS (High Altitude Warfare School) in Gulmarg. He immediately offered to retrieve the body. According to him it is very unethical for climbers to leave a body on the mountain when it is visible and retrievable. After getting all the clearances from the Ministry of Defence in Delhi, a team of HAWS climbers left for the spot. The whole process was truly like an expedition on the highly creviced glacier. A number of HAWS climbers also fell in some smaller crevices and were injured. Ultimately, after 17 days they were able to bring the body out. I was at the helipad in Srinagar with the parents of the boy when it was brought there in a cheetah helicopter. I was shocked to see it. The body was totally fresh and supple and it gave me an eerie feeling as if the boy was just sleeping. This was because of the body getting totally preserved in ice. We cremated the body in Srinagar and his parents took away the ashes to Japan. The memory of the whole episode due to the emotional and sentimental reasons prevailing at that time is so fresh that it seems as if the event took place only yesterday!

The other adventure was a helicopter reconnaissance over Kun area to locate some missing Austrian climbers. An expedition had gone to climb Kun peak in September. There was unusually heavy snowfall while the team was attempting the summit. Five climbers who were in the advance camp did not return to base camp even after two days. The liaison officer informed about this and some ground search was launched but no trace was found. The weather had cleared and the entire mountain could be easily seen. The Austrian Embassy in Delhi requested for an aerial reconnaissance of the area. The IAF base detailed a cheetah helicopter flown by Flt Lt Jacob. We took off very early in the morning from Srinagar and after refuelling in Kargil reached Kun area by 11 am. We made a general round of the entire area to locate the base camp and then following the normal route of climb went up to the summit. The weather was crystal clear and we could see all the peaks and the distant mountains too. I had a camera with me and got so excited that I forgot to wear the oxygen mask. Jacob was repeatedly asking me to wear the mask but I was busy taking dramatic pictures of the summits.

After making two runs all along the route we landed at the base camp. In the two runs we did not find any trace of climbers or their tents anywhere. At the base camp there were two tents completely zipped up and unoccupied. While Jacob remained in the helicopter, the co-pilot and I went inside the tents. Suddenly, Jacob switched off the helicopter. After a few moments he again restarted it. After searching the area we went back to the helicopter and asked Jacob why he had switched off? He said he had not done it but the aircraft had switched off on its own. He wanted us to leave quickly because due to cold and high-altitude he was apprehensive that the aircraft may not restart if it switched off again! We had according to him a narrow escape. We could have been stranded high up and then the others would be looking for us. After making one more attempt to locate the missing Austrians, we flew back to Srinagar via Kargil.

In Kargil, while we were refuelling, I started getting some headache. By the time we reached back to Srinagar, the headache was quite severe. Jacob told me it was because of oxygen starvation of brain at high-altitude. I had to take two tablets of analgesic and rest for the whole day before the headache went away. However, the headache was worth getting keeping in view the fantastic photos of the mountains I had clicked. The Austrians were never found in spite of so many years. They may have taken shelter in some ice cave and got entombed there for good! In the next episode I will describe the third aerial adventure in the Suru valley.

(To be continued)