A mountaineer and a raconteur

Have you ever spent time with Sherpa and Bhutia mountaineers? Though a very hardy lot, the community is yet to produce a great storyteller.

A Sherpa or a Bhutia is likely to wrap up the most daring of his conquests in a few short minutes, though he might add a word or two after a shot of chhang/rakshi.

If you have an appetite for adventure, nothing can frustrate you more than this. Even as you want to know every detail""how the icefall was negotiated, where did the mountaineers put on their oxygen masks, who broke down, etc.""all you get to hear is: "Uppar gaya, phir neeche aa gaya" ("I went up, then came down").

Thank God for M S Kohli""the most prolific chronicler of high adventure India has ever produced. One More Step is Kohli's 20th book, most of them on mountains and mountaineers.

Much of what Kohli has said in this autobiography has already been told in his earlier books. His best books have become chapters in his autobiography.

Still, there is an endearing quality in the way he writes about the Himalayas.

Most important, he does not believe in hogging all the glory. He writes about his fellow climbers with respect. Kohli has a special place for Sherpas in his heart.

In an earlier book on Sherpas, he always referred to Mt Everest as Sagar Matha, the name by which the locals call the highest mountain peak in the world.

The book deserves a place in the collection of every reader of mountaineering.

Kohli's baptism with adventure started early in life. He was born at Haripur, a small village in the North Western Frontier Province. The Sikh community was small but lived in peace with its Muslim neighbours. But as Partition neared, Kohli's family came under attack. Leaving everything behind, the Kohlis came to India, penniless and without hope.

But, in true Punjabi spirit, the family was able to pick up the threads of life once again. Kohli completed his studies and joined the Indian Navy.

Soon, his illustrious career as a mountaineer started. He climbed several daunting peaks in the Indian and Nepal Himalayas, though the summit of Mt Everest eluded him on no fewer than three occasions.

Clearly, the high water mark of Kohli's career was when nine of his team climbed Mt Everest in 1965. It is simply fascinating to read the story"""Nine Atop Everest".

Though he couldn't make it to the top, it was Kohli's finest hour.

The chapter that follows"""Cathedral In Ice"""is still better. (Kohli had co-authored a book on the subject not so long ago.) He was a key member of a covert Indo-US mission to mount a sensing device atop Nanda Devi in the Kumaon Himalayas to track test nuclear devices by China in the 1960s.

The device was run with the help of a generator fired by nuclear fuel. The first attempt had to be called off because the climbing season was drawing to an end.

The team left the generators at a safe place in the Nanda Devi sanctuary. But when it came back the next season, there was no trace of the generator.

It had most probably been washed out in a landslide.

Though Kohli's team was able to mount the device on its second attempt, it could never locate the generator. For a moment, there was a real danger that it might contaminate the rivers with radioactive waste.

But there was no trace of radioactive material. The missing generator will always remain a Himalayan mystery.

This leads to the obvious question: how much of present-day mountaineering is spying? Kohli says this was the only "operation" of its kind that he ever participated in.

That may be true. The giveaway is the style of writing. Kohli's account is that of a sportsman, talking more about the men around him than rivers, passes, climates, etc. It seldom reads like the log book of a spy.

(Read the diaries of Pandit Nain Singh or the works of Sarat Chandra Das and you will know the difference.)

There is another recurring theme in Kohli's autobiography: divine intervention in the life of mountaineers and adventurers. In spite of several near-death experiences, Kohli lived to tell the tale.

Always, Kohli says, this was because God was on his side. Actually, most mountaineers believe in miracles: unexpectedly the sun might come out, an avalanche might miss the tent by a few feet.

Sitting in the safety of our drawing rooms, we might dismiss it as superstition. But for men braving the icy winds, it is a matter of undying faith.

Not to be challenged, not to be trivialised.

One More Step

M S Kohli
Penguin Books
Price: Rs 495,
Pages: 322