The Long Road to Kalanka: Kenton Cool's Trip Journal (Hardwear Sessions)

This summer, Kenton Cool and Nick Bullock decided to test a new route on the north face of Mount Kalanka, in India's Garhwal Himalaya range. As Nick noted in a recent interview, Kalanka's north face currently has only one developed line, a fixed-rope climb. Kenton and Nick plan an alpine-style ascent. We would like to share Kenton's trip journal with you. Please keep checking our blog for future updates.

September 9, 2007 (Kalanka Base Camp):

Here we go.

Forecast looks ok and we leave for the route in a couple of hours, back in a week or so we hope.

Fingers crossed.

September 1, 2007 (Kalanka Base Camp):

Sitting back in BC after setting up ABC under the mountain. Nick and I spent the last two days getting all the equipment to high camp. We have found a great spot about 45 minutes from the start of the climb. The route there is pretty complex. A huge glacial moraine which takes hours to cross. Huge boulders that seems about to fall on you each time you pass, often we have to jump between them making the whole thing pretty scary.

We spent the night at ABC which was great, a really clear starry night (the first we have had), the only thing that disturbed the sleep was me screaming out during a nightmare. Interestingly Nick thought that I must have been dreaming about climbing and that I'd fallen off. In fact it was a cricket match??????

Now we are resting at BC with some bad wet weather again, will it ever clear up here??

The route looks awesome though.

August 29, 2007 (Kalanka Base Camp):

Just like North Wales...

Awoke again to the pitter-patter of rain on my tent fly, for the last 36 hours it's been nonstop. Nick and I got back to BC yesterday after a wee walk up to a 6000 meter peak. We trotted round the corner for a few hours and climbed up to 5200 meters where we put up the tent for the night. Digging out some rocks for a tent platform, I joined the lines of OAPs by putting my back out. Nick found this quite funny as he was still reeling after I burnt him off walking up, and told me that this would slow me down and served my right. The afternoon and eve was spent listening to the rain and watching the water soaking through the tent and into our sleeping bags, which I for one found very enjoyable.

The following morning was horrid. North Wales has nothing on this place; the rain was replaced with sleet and thick cloud. We binned the idea of going up, and packed a wet tent before walking down. Returning to BC we reflected on what we had achieved; two soggy sleeping bags, a wet tent and a knackered back, not back for a 24-hour trip for BC I think you would agree.

Today the Dutch went up to Depot camp while Nick and I hung out drinking coffee and spraying. The weather is #$@& and there is little sign of improvement. The one glimmer of hope today was that I had the Bob the Builder mug for tea this morning. I normally get Digimon or Pokemon mugs which spoils my day. Also, Nick has finally shaken high altitude Malaria (aka the common sniffle) and is off antibiotics, this meant he could start on the high-quality Indian whiskey that we had last night. It was purely for medicinal reasons of course.

Plans? Well, they change by the hour so no point tell you really, I suppose it depends on my back and how much coffee we drink today.

August 25, 2007 (Kalanka Base Camp):

We all left BC this AM to carry some kit part way to the mountain. For the first time it wasn't too cloudy and we got to see the massive North face of Kalanka and Changabang as we walked up. The trek up wasn't too bad, the moraine is pretty broken and passage was OK. Nick who has been here before does say it gets a lot worse. We all got to what is known as depot camp in about 3 hours and another 2 hours saw us back down to BC. It was great to stretch the legs a little, and carry some equipment up higher.

Nick and I are undecided which line to take as yet, there seems to be a stunning ridge on the left of the face that looks really safe, but the main face also looks awesome. I think it will be weather and conditions dependent. It was great to get such good views of the hill, as I have looked at pics of these mountains for over 10 years and to see them up close well........

Nick is slowly getting better. We think he has just got a cold, but Nick is sure that is some thing serious (must be related to getting old).

Tomorrow we will be doing a second carry and hoping the weather stays good although its raining now (BOO HOO).

August 24, 2007 (Kalanka Base Camp):

Well, this is a round-up from the expedition of the last week. Nick Bullock and myself (along with two Dutch dudes) have finally got to base camp. We arrived yesterday to misty damp conditions not unlike North Wales. The site of BC is pretty cool, a nice grassy meadow with some great views (when we can see anything) of some of the surrounding mountains. We can't see Kalanka yet but a short (3hr) walk up the glacier should give us views of the face.

This am has been spent setting up BC, I spent hours setting up the laptop, solar panels and batteries only for none of it to work. I've no idea why and after leaving it for a couple of hours it all seemed to work, now that's different to how things normally pan out!!

The hold-ups in Josimath weren't too bad in the end, and after losing a day there we got the jeeps to the road head and started the walk in. As ever the porters were all pretty manic and somehow 25 loads became 35, but we didn't mind as the price is per load and the porters were all good natured. The first day of walking was a steep uphill path, Nick and I got to the village pretty quickly but the 1500m height gain was telling and Nick had a headache that eve (to go with his cold, although Nick thinks he has Malaria). We spent the night in a wee hut and yesterday saw a 4hr walk to BC. Again there was quite a steep path and as we got to BC both myself and Mike (Dutch guy) fell into a stream getting wet feet, Then to add insult to injury it started to rain. However we all quickly got tents up and soon the stove hummed and Herea (the cook) was serving tea.

Tomorrow will see us walking up glacier in a hope that the clouds part and we can see the line. Right I'm off to read my book and bask in the glory of getting all the electrics working.

August 21, 2007 (Josimath):

Well, nothing goes that easy does it. After a great start in Delhi and a long but successful trip here we are now held up by nothing more than paper. Today has been a round robin of the Army, Local Government and Police, all wanting passports, permission forms and anything else to make life difficult. The bottom line is we hope to leave at 5am tomorrow and get to the roadhead to meet the porters. It's not too bad as we have found the local bottle shop and Nick has a Rucksack of beer, and if we get there early tomorrow we should make up most of the lost time.

Until then its more Chai and fried rice for the boys. Finger crossed it goes okay tomorrow.

August 20, 2007 (Josimath):

Two days of bone crunching, back-aching bus journey has seen us finally get to Joshimath. Yesterday we spent 16hrs on the bus, stopping only a couple of times for food and cold drinks. We got to our overnight stop in Srinagar at about 8.30pm total spent both Nick and I showered and crashed out despite the heat. This morning we were in the Bus by 6am and we wound our way through the lush green foothills slowly gaining height. The road is pretty bloody exciting with huge drops down to the Ganga River and some huge landslides the bus was going over. Early afternoon saw us in Joshimath, where and we have quickly repacked things into porter loads in time for tomorrow's jeep ride to the road head.

We start the walk in on Wed we hope and should be in BC a few days after that. This will be the last update till BC as all the computer equipment is safely packed away in the barrels. I'm writing this on the slowest of old dial ups in a funky dirty Internet place, the electricity keeps failing so I'm going to sign off before I lose it all.

August 18, 2007 (Delhi):

Well, Myself and Nick Bullock have made it to Delhi and it's HOT HOT HOT and very sticky.

We have managed to get our freight out of customs yesterday in record time, a mere 4hrs and $100 so it looks like it's all go for Kalanka after months of planning.

We met with the Indian Mountaineering Federation yesterday afternoon who told us the roads to Josthimath have all been washed out with the recent rains, so it sounds like even getting out of here will be an adventure.

The team leaves tomorrow at 5am on a bus with all our kit and it will take 2 days to Josthimath where we will spend a few days sorting the kit into porter loads. Argh. Early starts never agree especially with the jet lag.

So stay tuned and I'll update if the bus gets through the landslides.