Capt Kohli’s spirit will forever echo in the mountains

An era came to an end with the passing of Captain Mohan Singh Kohli, the renowned mountaineer who led the epoch-making Indian Everest Expedition in 1965

Brig Darshan Khullar Retd

Updated At : 05:04 AM Jun 29, 2025 IST

Capt MS Kohli (centre) with the Indian team after the successful summit of Mt Everest. Photos courtesy: Maninder Kohli

Home is the sailor, home from the sea. And the hunter home from the hill

— RL Stevenson

An era came to an end with the peaceful passing of Captain Mohan Singh Kohli, aged 94, on June 23 in New Delhi. All his dear ones were there by his bedside: his wife Pushpa (his rocklike support in life), sons Maninder and Ravinder, with their wives and children. He had led a full life.

By far India’s most renowned mountaineer, he is best known as the leader of the epoch-making Indian Everest Expedition 1965. Nine climbers reached the summit, creating a world record which held for 17 years. Indira Gandhi, while describing it as one of India’s six major achievements since Independence, paid a rich tribute: “The record of Commander Kohli’s expedition will find a special mention in history. It was a masterpiece of planning, organisation, teamwork, individual effort and leadership.”

Capt Kohli (right) with Japanese mountaineer Ko Yoshida, honorary member of the Himalayan Club.

According to mountain writing legend Walt Unsworth, the Indian success by its very magnitude completed the mountaineering subjection of the Southeast Ridge. All this added immensely to national pride and the great resurgence of mountaineering in India.

Captain Kohli was born on December 11, 1931, at Haripur surrounded by Kaghan hills, on the banks of the Indus, in the foothills of the Karakoram mountains in the erstwhile NWFP, now in Pakistan. His love affair with the mountains began in his childhood itself. Psychologically, the 1947 Partition, where he survived the mass massacre of innocents, was a major turning point in his life: emerging physically and mentally stronger with a survivor’s instincts.

These traits came to the fore in 1962 when as the deputy leader of the Everest expedition and leader of the summit party, he, along with two others, spent three nights, two without oxygen, in raging blizzards. They had, in Unsworth’s words, almost passed the point of no return. The descent had the qualities of a nightmare.

Earlier, in 1960, on India’s first expedition to Everest, he reached the South Col as a member of the second summit party when the expedition had to be called off due to bad weather and the onset of monsoon.

He was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1954, reporting to INS Shivaji at Lonavala, the offshore training institute. He later joined the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and developed the force into a formidable mountaineering organisation.

Starting with Saser Kangri (25,170 ft) in 1956, Captain Kohli was a member/leader of 20 major expeditions, which included the first ascents of Nandakot (1959) and Annapurna iii (1961).

Having reached the pinnacle of his mountaineering career in 1965, Captain Kohli did not rest on his laurels. Later that year, he was involved in an exciting Indo-US secret mission to install nuclear-powered listening devices on the Himalayan peaks, notably Nanda Devi and Nandakot, to monitor Chinese missile capabilities, vividly described in his book, ‘Spies in the Himalayas’.

He joined Air India in 1971. He began by promoting trekking in the Himalayas and India’s other vast outdoors with their unlimited scope for adventure. There is hardly any discipline in the realm of aero, water and terrestrial sports that escaped his attention. In 1978, he flew over the South Pole.

He became deeply involved in the ‘Save the Himalayas’ movement. In 1989, he cofounded the Himalayan Environment Trust (HET) with Sir Edmund Hillary, also involving mountaineering legends such as Maurice Herzog, Chris Bonington, Reinhold Messner and Junko Tabai and eminent Indian personalities like Dr Karan Singh.

He had a long stint as the vice-president and president of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation and his achievements were many. He mentored the 1984 Everest expedition which had the distinction of having the first Indian woman, fifth in the world, Bachendri Pal, reaching the summit. I was the leader of this expedition.

A prolific writer, Captain Kohli authored 28 books, including ‘Nine Atop Everest’, ‘The Miracles of Ardaas’ and ‘A Life Full of Adventure’. His honours list included the Padma Bhushan, Arjuna Award, the Tenzing Norgay Lifetime National Adventure Award and the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal.

Captain Kohli was a generous and graceful man with charisma and a fine sense of humour. His life was defined by honesty, simplicity, team spirit, and one who believed in the safety of his men and honour of the country. In the passing of this national hero, we mourn not just the loss of one of the world’s great mountaineers, but a visionary who inspired generations to dream big and climb peak to peak. Capt Kohli’s spirit will forever echo in the mountains he so dearly loved.

— The writer served as principal of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute at Darjeeling

Capt Kohli’s spirit will forever echo in the mountains

Brig Darshan Khullar Retd

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