The Mountain Casts a Long Shadow - Again

The reportage 'climaxed' with the discovery of a video clip from a GoPro camera of one of the climbers, who died.

Tweet from ITBP

The authorities compared it to a 'Black Box', recovered from a crashed airplane, and also, labelled it as the 'final moments' before the accident, thus giving it a headline primetime coverage.

On careful viewing of this short video, we at Dream Wanderlust, think it pertinent to air our concerns and a few questions.

Nearly, all the reports have labelled it as the Nanda Devi Expedition, which in fact, it never was. Officially, it was an expedition to Nanda Devi East.

It also needs to be clarified that the accident did not occur on Nanda Devi East.

In fact, we can now presume with some certainty, from evidence culled from other authenticated sources, that the Nanda Devi East attempt had possibly been aborted.

The route-opening and the rope-fixing team had barely made it up to Camp-2 beyond Longstaff Col. They were already running out of time as the next team, from Poland, was on its way, and that none of the clients had gone up beyond the Col, should have been, we presume, enough reason to abort the project.

So, the choice of the alternative, Peak-6477, we again presume, would have been a good and a possible 'climbable' consolation – take away for the high paying clients.

But it is also pertinent that the person entrusted with opening and fixing the route on Nanda Devi East, Mark Thomas, was not part of this ill-fated group.

The legality of the alternative was never in doubt, since the liaison officer with the team is authorized to sanction it, and it can be officially ratified, post-facto, on return.

The choice of this alternative peak, we presume, would have been based on a few obvious premises, viz:

I. it was within easy reach of their Nanda Devi East Base Camp
II. it did not entail difficult technical climbing, and so,
III. it was commensurate and feasible with the skill-sets of the clients, and
IV. had the added bonus of being a virgin peak.

The much-publicized video has been described by the 'authorities' as

I. a "mesmerizing footage"
II. "final moments"
III. "sudden loud noise ...video went blank... and stopped".

We presume, and hopefully rightly too, that this is video is "unedited".

It is, indeed, a "heart-wrenching" and "mesmerizing footage", given the tragic fate of these climbers. If it is indeed the "last reported footage" in the camera, it only proves that it was the "last recording made" and not necessarily the "final moments".

"The sudden loud noise", before the video goes blank and stops, cannot be appreciated in this video. Since the authorities report this, then there is some other video footage which has not possibly been made public.

The facts that can be observed from this published video, are as follows:

I. it starts just before sunrise, probably around 0430 to 0500 hours
II. it jump-cuts to broad daylight, when
III. considering the size of the shadows cast by the climbers would be around 1000 to 1100 hours.
IV. The visibly appreciable climbers are all carrying fully-loaded rucksacks.
V. The 7th climber at the rear, (just in front of the last climber with the GoPro camera fixed on his head, as seen by his shadow) is carrying his mat and snow shovels.
VI. The peak, visible on the skyline, is still a fair distance away.
VII. The snow condition is appalling and is balling-up under the crampons.
VIII. The eight climbers are possibly on 2 ropes, 4 on each, but all of them dangerously close together.
IX. All the climbers are treading the same line behind each other, thus possibly
X. creating a "fault line" on either cornice or an unstable snow slope.

Sreenshot from the video published by ITBP.

From these observations, we may now draw some logical conclusions, as follows:

I. The climbers would already have been on the move up for at least 6 hours after leaving their last camp, or maybe more
II. They knew the summit was still a long way off and they can only reach it very late in the day, making the return difficult
III. So, they were prepared to make another camp below the final summit slopes either on their way up or return from the summit
IV. Given the condition of the snow, the speed of ascent must have been slower than anticipated
V. There did not seem to be any evidence of an anchor, a belay or a fixed rope
VI. For all of them to be victims of the same event, they must have been unsafely close to each other.

Though what may have actually happened shall remain a mystery, one needs to ask:

I. what were these clients doing on a potentially dangerous snow ridge, all bunched up together possibly without an anchor or, a belay or a fixed rope?
II. Only the brave ITBP personnel, who recovered these unfortunate climbers, know the precise fall line and thus can pinpoint the location on the ridge from which they may have fallen.
III. This video, which has been published as the final moments, is presumably probably not so.
So, is there another video?

The first question shall remain unanswered. The second and third should not be.

The oval locates Peak-6477 which is not labelled as in the contour map, and arrows point the probable site of accident.

The possible route (red line) and the probable site of accident (red arrows)