Changabang is a mountain in the Garhwal

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is part of a group of peaks that form the northeast wall of the

Nanda Devi Nanda Devi is the second-highest mountain in India, after Kangchenjunga, and the highest located entirely within the country (Kangchenjunga is on the border of India and Nepal). It is the 23rd-highest peak in the world. Nanda Devi was consid ...

Sanctuary. It is a particularly steep and rocky peak, and all routes on it are serious undertakings. It has been the site of many significant climbs. It does not have a high

topographic prominence In topography, prominence (also referred to as autonomous height, relative height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop or relative height in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contou ...

, being slightly lower than its near neighbour Kalanka to the east, and lower than many other peaks in the immediate vicinity, but its steep rocky profile has made it a more attractive destination than its elevation would indicate.

First ascent

Changabang was first climbed on 4 June 1974 by an expedition led by Lt. Col Balwant Sandhu and

Chris Bonington Sir Christian John Storey Bonington, CVO, CBE, DL (born 6 August 1934) is a British mountaineer. His career has included nineteen expeditions to the Himalayas, including four to Mount Everest. Early life and expeditions Bonington's father, w ...

, via the Southeast Face, leading to the East Ridge. This is the easiest route on the mountain, and one of the few that is primarily a snow/ice climb, as opposed to a rock climb with some snow, ice, or mixed terrain.

Notable ascents

Other notable ascents include some of the hardest climbs ever done in the Himalaya. * 1976 ''Southwest Ridge'', Naoki Toda, Akira Kobayashi, Masahide Aida, Harumi Ohno, Yukio Asano and Teruyoshi Karino (Japanese Alpine Club) all reached the summit after 33 days of effort. * 1976 ''West Wall'',

Peter Boardman Peter Boardman (25 December 1950 – 17 May 1982) was an English mountaineer and author. He is best known for a series of bold and lightweight expeditions to the Himalayas, often in partnership with Joe Tasker, and for his contribution to mount ...

and

Joe Tasker Joe Tasker (12 May 1948 – 17 May 1982) was a British climber, active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. He died while climbing Mount Everest. Early life Born into a traditional Roman Catholic family in 1948, Tasker was the second of t ...

, summit reached 15 October 1976. The route took over 25 days to ascend, and their use of

big wall climbing Big wall climbing is a type of rock climbing where a climber ascends a long multi-pitch route, normally requiring more than a single day to complete the climb. Big wall routes require the climbing team to live on the route often using portaledges ...

techniques to overcome the serious, sustained difficulties was revolutionary. Boardman's account of the ascent, ''The Shining Mountain'', won the 1979

John Llewellyn Rhys Prize The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize was a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama) by an author from the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth aged 35 or under, written in English and publis ...

for literature. * 1978 ''Direct South Face'',

Wojciech Kurtyka Wojciech Kurtyka (also ''Voytek'' Kurtyka, born 25 July 1947, in Skrzynka near Kłodzko) is a Polish mountaineer and rock climber, one of the pioneers of the alpine style of climbing the biggest walls in the Greater Ranges. He lived in Wrocław up ...

(Pol.), Krzysztof Żurek (Pol.),

Alex MacIntyre Alex MacIntyre (1954–1982) was a British mountaineer in the 1970s. He is known for developing new climbing techniques that enabled ascents not previously accomplished. Early life MacIntyre was born in Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire, to S ...

(UK) and John Porter (US-UK), summit reached 27 September 1978.. (available also internet version, see External links) * 1981 ''South Ridge'', Ugo Manera (Ita.), Lino Castiglia (Ita.) first summit via the South Ridge. * 1997 ''North Face'',

Andy Cave Andy Cave (born 1966) is a British mountaineer, mountain guide, and motivational speaker. He was nominated for the Piolet d'Or for his first ascent of the North Face of Changabang in 1997, and won the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literatu ...

and Brendan Murphy (summit) with

Mick Fowler Michael Fowler (born 1956) is a British rock climber, ice climber, mountaineer, and climbing author. Fowler was voted the "Mountaineers' Mountaineer" in a poll in ''The Observer'', and with Paul Ramsden, won the 2002 Piolet d'Or (or Golden Ice ...

and Steve Sustad (to summit ridge) made the first ascent of the North Face of Changabang, a 1,600 m (5,250 ft) route involving steep, sustained ice, mixed, and rock climbing. (Murphy was hit by an avalanche and swept off the face to his death on the descent.) * 1998 ''The Lightning Route'',

Carlos Buhler Carlos Buhler (born October 17, 1954 in Harrison, New York) is one of America's leading high altitude mountaineers. Buhler's specialty is high-standard mountaineering characterized by small teams, no oxygen, minimal gear and equipment, and relative ...

(US) and a team of Russians (Andrei Volkov, Andrei Mariev, Ivan Dusharin and Pavel Chabaline) established a demanding new route on the north face: (VII 5.9 A4 WI4, 1580m)Changabang-98
/ref> * 2006 ''A New Route'', On 12 October 2006, two Mexican climbers, Andrés Delgado and Alfonso de la Parra, summited Changabang by a new route. While descending, they encountered a storm and were officially reported missing by the Indian Mountaineering Federation on 15 October, when they last made a contact via

satellite phone A satellite telephone, satellite phone or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to other phones or the telephone network by radio through orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites, as cellphones do. The advantage of a sa ...

. An initial rescue effort was made despite harsh weather conditions, but on 8 November 2006 the search was cancelled due to continued harsh weather.El Universal Grafico

/ref> * 2022 ''The 2nd Ascent of West Wall'', Matthew Scholes, Kim Ladiges from Australia & Daniel Joll from New Zealand scripted history in the first week of May, by making the second ascent of Changabang by the legendary West Ridge. It took 46 years for this, the second successful ascent.

References

{{Reflist

External links

''AAJ''"> John Porter: ''Bandaka and Changabang''. American Alpine Journal, ''AAJ''
1979, pp. 29–35(pdf file, see especially p. 32, and Plate 16, ''K. Żurek in headwall''). Html version available
americanalpineclub.org
Both retrieved 20 October 2017.

(in Polish). From the left Wojciech Kurtyka, Krzysztof Żurek, John Porter and Alex MacIntyre. Photo: Józef Nyka. Retrieved 20 October 2017. Mountains of Uttarakhand Six-thousanders of the Himalayas