Telthop 2014

by Chris Horobin

Telthop (6185m) is a peak situated to the north of Leh in the remote Shyok river valley of Jammu and Kashmir (India). This area is of considerable political and military sensitivity, given its proximity to the still disputed Pakistan and Chinese borders, so, for a foreign national, the majority of the peaks over 6000m require an X Visa from the Indian Govt and that the expedition be accompanied by an Indian Army liaison officer (LO). Some of the peaks in this area cannot be climbed due to their perceived military sensitivity and others can only be climbed with a required number of Indian nationals in the team.

Jane on way to Camp 3

The first obstacle, for a foreign national, is getting an X Visa. The company (VSF) to whom the Indian visa process has been outsourced in London does not recognise that such a visa exists, there is no X Visa status on the drop-down menu and therefore it cannot be applied for. Once you have convinced them that the visa can in fact be issued you then need a letter of permission from the Indian Mountaineering Federation (IMF), the Indian Ministry of the Interior and the Indian Army, giving permission to climb your intended peak.

Telthop

If you are fortunate enough to have your X Visa issued in time for your departure you must then attend a briefing from the IMF in Delhi. The IMF briefing is to ensure that you understand the process and procedures required to visit this area and meet the reporting criteria for climbing a peak of this nature. During this briefing you will also be introduced to your Army Liaison Officer and advised of your responsibilities towards him. This year we had the pleasure of Virender Singh, a young but very experienced climber from Manali, as our LO. He proved to be a great asset to the expedition, assisting with both the planning and the climbing of our objective.

River crossing

A short flight took us to Leh (3400m) where we spent two days acclimatizing to the higher altitude. From Leh we then travelled north by jeep over the Khardung La (5400m) the highest motorable road in the world. The views from the top of the pass to the north over the eastern Karakorum and the Sasar Kangri mountains are simply stunning. From the pass we travelled down into the Nubra/Shyok river valley to Hundar.

After overnight in Hundar we started trekking south into the Thanglasgo valley. After only 3 hours of walking up a steep sided gorge through which a fast and large river runs, we arrived at our first camp site and the bridge which had been destroyed on our first attempt to climb this mountain in 2010. This bridge, now repaired, gives access to a steep and sometimes narrow valley with high mud and rubble cliffs on either side. Seven hours of trekking with an ascent of 900m brought us to our second campsite at 4300m. One more short day took us into a beautiful wide and green valley full of marmots and flowers where we established base camp at 4800m. The views north from base camp over the Thanglasgo peaks to K25 are superb, but of real interest to us was the view up the valley in which we were camped. A line of four independent peaks, all over 6000m stretched to the south on the left of the valley. The furthest away and not completely visible from out camp was our intended target, Telthop.

The final scramble

The next day we did a recce up the valley heavily laden with climbing kit, the purpose of which was to find a place to establish our advance base camp (ABC). After a 4 hour journey and a further 300m of ascent over difficult and time consuming moraines we found a relatively flat area on which we could place a few tents. We were also able to establish the best place to climb the snout and access the main glacier.

The general aspect of the face above our ABC is North West; the two ridges (West South West and North) bounding this face are steep in the higher sections and are broken by large rocky steps. Access to the glacier is difficult by any other means than the steep snout. After much deliberation we decided to climb the snout on the left, cross the bottom of the glacier to the SW ridge and climb this to the summit, bypassing the rocky steps on steep snow.

After a rest day at base camp we left the next day to do our final carry to ABC and to prepare for our early departure summit attempt. Leaving ABC at 01.00h the next morning we gained the snout of the glacier by climbing 250m of steep and loose moraines. The snout of the glacier was steeper than we had anticipated with an initial 60m of 80 degree ice and then a further 80m of increasingly less steep ice, which placed us on a level section of the glacier at around 5500m.

Our intended route over to the SW ridge, although on good firm snow, proved to be heavily crevassed and, as dawn broke, the ridge itself could be seen to be steeper than anticipated and very heavily crevassed in the higher sections. We therefore decided to climb the NE face direct and access the SW ridge higher up, just below the rocky steps. This proved feasible and, after 500m of weaving our way through the crevasses and climbing on good hard snow of up to 70 degrees, we were able to gain the ridge at our intended spot.

The initial rocky steps were avoided by climbing 80 degree snow slopes above the NE face. We then crossed over the ridge and, after a final climb on steep and loose rock above the SE face, the summit was reached at around 10.30h.

Group on Telthop summit

The descent was made by reversing the route to the point where we had accessed the SW ridge and then dropping down dangerously steep and extremely loose rock/scree slopes to the glacier under the SE face. This eventually gave us access to the valley above our ABC to which we returned at approx 17.00h. This choice of descent was not ideal but one which we were forced to take because of our lack of sufficient equipment for an abseil retreat down the NE face.

Valley of death
Photos by Chris Horobin

After a night at ABC we returned to base camp and from there a further two days of trekking returned us to Hundar and the comforts of civilisation.

Given the remote nature and the sustained steep face climbing, we have given this route an overall grade of D.

Expedition members: Chris Horobin (UK), Jane Horobin (UK), Henry Latti (FIN),Bob Shiels (UK), Matt Barnsley (UK), Roland Chuter (UK), Nigel Sharma (UK), Chuck Boyd (USA), Tashi Phunchok Zangola (Ind) Phujung Bhote (Nep), Dawa Narbu Sherpa (Ind), Virender Singh (Liaison Officer) (Ind).

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