North of England Kishtwar 1978

The expedition’s main aim was to scale Barnaj II, a major unclimbed peak in the eastern part of the Kishtwar Himalaya in northern India. Previous attempts on this peak had failed primarily due to bad weather. This one did so entirely as a result of a lack of time. For various reasons, including mis-directed baggage, stolen money, stolen passports and the bookings of homeward flights, two of the team arrived at base camp with only eight days left before the deadline for leaving. In these circumstances there was no alternative to a single alpine-style push; despite the virtual impossibility of acclima­tising sufficiently it seemed better to the expedition party to try this than to do nothing. Besides the attempt on Barnaj II,the expedition did succeed in climbing two nearby virgin summits and almost reached the top of a third.