“To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield” – Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Fifty years ago, a very determined group of six young women climbers set out on a big adventure to climb a peak in the Lahaul Himalayas. Most of us were in our early twenties. The leader Sujaya Guha, a keen climber, was in her early thirties. The other members were Kamala Saha, Nilu Ghosh, Shefali Chakraborty and Purnima Sharma.
I was the deputy leader of the expedition. Sujaya and I had completed the basic and advanced courses at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling. We were both members of the Ronti Expedition (19,893 ft/6,064 metres) in 1967. Kamala had done an advanced course and the others had completed their basic mountaineering courses. Purnima was our doctor.
The aim of the expedition was to climb an unnamed virgin peak (20,130 ft/6,136 m) in the Lahoul Himalayas. If…