Anindya summits Peak Nelion, Completes African Trilogy

The snowy massifs of Mts. Kilimanjaro, Kenya and Rwenzori have attracted mountaineers over the years. The names of the iconic Duke of Abruzzi, Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman stand out.

Dream Wanderlust has been in exclusive touch with Anindya Mukherjee, a mountaineer by profession, and an adventurer and explorer, who is on his way back from a successful ascent of Peak Nelion (5,188m) in the Mt Kenya massif.

In Africa, he has previously summited Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Stanley in the Rwenzori massif in 2005 and 2015 respectively. His present climb on Mt Kenya successfully completes the snowy triptychs of Equatorial Africa.

For the record, in 2012, he bicycled solo from the Equator on the East Coast of Africa in Kenya to the Tropic of Capricorn on the West Coast in Namibia, across five countries and a distance of approx. 4,500kms. Also, in 2017, he bicycled solo across the Sahara taking the Atlantic route from Morocco to Senegal - a distance of approx. 2,300kms.

Now having also successfully climbed all three peaks in the African continent, he is statistically the first Indian to have done so; a qualification he holds but is not comfortable with, because he thinks it only reflects the paucity of self-supported adventures and climbs amongst Indians. Anindya emphasized that he is a practising acolyte of the Shipton-Tilman School of self-supported, minimalistic, low eco-impact exploration and mountaineering. He has stuck to these principles not only in the Himalayas but also across the globe, as to in Africa. Notably, H. W. Tilman and E. E. Shipton happened to have done the first traverse of Mt Kenya massif in July, 1930 up through its West ridge, followed by a descent through the South East route.

Anindya expressed his gratitude to the ethos of Shipton and Tilman and to his friend and climber Jeremy Windsor, who provided the latest details having himself summited in 2019. His choice of Mt Kenya, he clarified, was based on it being one of the classic ‘big wall’ climbs in the Southern Hemisphere with some of the best multi-pitch rock climbs in the world.

True to the Tilman tradition, and to re-live his earlier adventures in Africa, he cycled solo from Mt Kenya to Nairobi, on his way back.

Brief Timeline of the Expedition

3rd February: Drive from Nairobi via Nanyuki and Sirimon and hiked to old Moses Camp.

4th February: Old Moses to Liki North Camp.

5th February:  Liki North to Shipton's Camp.

6th February: Shipton's Camp to Austrian Hut.

7th February: Acclimatization day, climbed Point Lenana.

8th February: Climbed SE Face, standard route of Nelion, Slept in Howell's Hut at the summit.

9th February: Aborted traverse to Batian due to high wind, down to Austrian Hut and walked to Shipton's Camp.

10th February: Shipton's Camp to Nanyuki.

11th – 13th February:  Cycled back to Nairobi.

Summary of the Expedition

Team: Chris Temboh Muriuki, John and Anindya Mukherjee 

Approach: South and South West Face of Mt Kenya to climb Peak Nelion. Original plan was to climb Nelion first and then traverse the Gate of Mist to Batian. Traverse was aborted due to high wind.

Summit: All three reached the summit on 8th February.

Interview with Anindya Mukherjee

DW: Congratulations on the making it to the summit of Nelion Peak! Please tell us about the route you took. What influenced you?

Anindya: I have climbed Nelion Peak - its South and South West Face. I have always majorly been influenced by Eric Shipton and Bil Tilman and their tenets of exploration. This peak was first climbed and traversed by Eric Shipton and Percy Wyn-Harris in 1929 by the same route. In 2016, I, with my fellow climbers, Martin Boner and Chris Temboh Muriuki, had attempted Mt Batian North Face (5199m). We took longer than usual time to climb the standard route of Batian's North Face. Therefore, we had to turn back; not too far from the summit since we got pretty late. Since then, I was adamant that we would come back to Mt Kenya to do the classic Nelion-Batian traverse. In the interim, Chris prepared himself to be a lot more technically sound as he climbed around Mt Kenya a handful of times in last four years.

DW: What have you taken into account from your last attempt?

Anindya: Once we started planning the nitty-gritty of this traverse; such as climbing the South-East Face of Batian-Nelion, spending an entire night atop Nelion, stocking up sufficient food and water for the aforesaid, we realised we rather need another climber who possesses the know-how to traverse the route, than just Chris and me. Having learnt from the past experience, Chris invited John to tag along as he was aptly familiar with the route up till Nelion.

DW: Could you please elaborate on the route more precisely?

Anindya: We started through the Sirimon route via Shipton’s Camp (4320m) to Simba Col, Tooth Col, and Austrian Hut (4700m) to summit Point Lenana (4985m). Approx. 15,000 summits are made every year on Lenana. Whereas, only 200 climb Nelion and 50, Batian; which is a proof enough how technically testing both these peaks are to succeed on them.

However, we reached the foot of the Col after an hour’s climb from Austrian Hut passing by a soon-to-be-shrunk Lewis glacier. Overall, the climbing grade was not too overwhelming for me. There were two traverses to be done and the crux of the climbing is difficult as you are climbing on such a huge face of ~1500ft carrying 10-15kg on an altitude nearing 5000m. It surely would have felt easier nearby sea level. Hence, it is not just another type of big-wall climbing, rather a form of Alpine climbing.

DW: How many pitches did you climb?

Anindya: We have climbed 18 pitches to reach the top of Nelion within a span of nine hours. After an entire day of climbing, once we reached the summit, everything looked well as the weather too was good which gave us the hope to be able to complete the traverse the next day. Regrettably, weather started deteriorating due to the sudden invasion of strong wind that night; something that can only be compared to a jet stream wind. We expected that to retreat by midnight which never happened. We spent the night inside Howell’s Hut which is situated at the top of Mt Nelion. All three of us had to spend two days (8th & 9th Feb, 2020) on six litres of water-supply as there was no sign ice on the top to be melted down. As a result of it, we got dehydrated. Since the wind hardly showed any chance to recede into distance, we decided to descend back.

The fun fact is only the Abseil route is bolted. Since this is the standard and pretty well-traversed route, if one can locate these bolts, there is no need to sacrifice one's own anchor. Luckily, we came across 13 of them along the route. We reached at Austian Hut around 2pm followed by a lunch over there, we finally reached Shipton's Camp in the evening.

DW: Now that you successfully climbed Mt Kenya on your second attempt, how would you look back at the entire experience?

Anindya: Alpine Big-wall rock climbing doesn't happen often in India even though there exist a lot of these walls. I personally never call myself a rock climber. Yet I distinctly felt that we, as Indians, are capable of climbing big walls like that of Mt Kenya. To be able to do that often, one has to practise on a well-established route. I believe that I honestly do not have the ability to locate such route and climb which is also why I chose Mt Kenya. Moreover, the romanticism over Africa, and the impact of Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman also had an enormous effect on this journey.

DW: Besides, you are the first Indian to have climbed all three of Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Stanley and Mt Kenya.

Anindya: Yes, it is true that no Indian has climbed all three of them before I did. But I’d rather not be highlighted as the first Indian having done so. The reason is that Indians have hardly achieved much in the field of adventure till now. Hence, whatever one does, might be the first thing done by any Indian. It basically shows our deficit. After so many years, if people get to know about an Indian climber, summiting Mt Kenya for the first time ever, it will only highlight our state of poverty and nothing else.

DW: If not preferred to be termed as the first Indian to do so, what has been your motivation otherwise? What was your motto?

Anindya: My motto has been to show that even the Indians can undergo such rigour of self-supported expeditions, independent of any external help for rope-fixing, load-ferry and such things. That too, equally; alongside other competent foreigners. One can only hope that it’d encourage a generations to come.

I am sincerely grateful to Petzl India and Allied Sports who had sponsored this expedition. I cycled back to Nairobi and took a flight to Bombay on 14th Feb early in the morning.

Photo Courtesy: Anindya Mukherjee