Chengappa (15), John Munro, with Sherpas Tenzing and Dawa Thundup, and Dhian Singh, attempted Bandarpunch by the south-east ridge. In the years to follow the association of the Doon School with the Himalaya continued to grow, and the School had become a cradle of Indian mountaineering.Įarly Indian Expeditions, 1946 - 1958 Bandarpunch, 6315 m (20,720 ft), 1946 -1950īandarpunch, 20,720 ft in the Garhwal Himalaya ('The Doon School Mountain' as Tenzing later described it in his autobiography) was first reconnoitered by Jack Gibson and John Martyn in 1937, who concluded that its southeast ridge was the only feasible route to the summit, having climbed along it to a height of 18,200 ft In July 1946 an expedition organised by Jack Gibson, and including Holdie, Nandu Jayal, M.P. And indeed very soon he became an important part of Indian mountaineering. Gurdial Singh joined the staff of the school in 1945, and very soon mountains became an important part of his life for which he paid rich tribute to the British 'trinity' among his colleagues who inspired in him a love for mountains in all their wondrous variety.
Nevertheless, it was no less an achievement for three 16-year old boys to have climbed to 19,000 ft, perhaps the first Indians to have done so, and far from being the least discouraged, Nandu wrote of this experience: 'The hills have claimed another willing slave.' For Doon School boys this expedition did indeed mark a significant transition from climbing in the foothills to climbing in the high Himalaya. The objective to climb three or four easy peaks of aroundĢ0,000 ft, by way of introducing mountaineering to the three boys was unfortunately frustrated by persistently bad monsoon weather.
The first such expedition was organised in 1942 when John Martyn and Holdie, with two Sherpas, took three boys of whom Narendra Dhar (Nandu) Jayal was one, Ravi Matthai and Balram Singh the other two, to an Arwa valley glacier camp at 19,000 ft beyond Badrinath. Their pupils to first venture into the forests and hills in and around the Doon valley and the outer Himalaya during the short midterm breaks, and later farther into the interior of the Garhwal Himalaya during the long summer vacations for more adventurous trekking and climbing. From those early years in the late thirties and early forties, it can well be imagined that this 'trinity' of bachelor-masters and mountaineers would play a crucial role to encourage Indeed Holdie had climbed Kamet in 1931 with Frank Smythe's expedition. Holdsworth (Holdie) who were all experienced alpinists. Fortunately, its first Headmaster, Arthur Foot, a member of the Alpine Club, was a keen climber, and perhaps his love for the mountains influenced him in recruiting three house masters, John Martyn, Jack Gibson and R. The Doon School, the first public school in India, was founded in 1935 at the feet of the Himalaya in Dehra Dun. To set the record straight, the Editor of this esteemed journal invited me to attempt to fill an important historical gap by recapitulating the significant early years of pre-and post-Independence which in fact not only gave birth to Indian mountaineering but set it firmly on course.
There is a widely prevalent misconception that the origins of Indian mountaineering belong largely to the second post-Independence decade, when Everest became the main focus of its climbing endeavours. Early Years of Indian Mountaineering Nalni D.