Sir Edmund Hillary’s tryst with Joshimath

JOSHIMATH, a small town atop the mountains, was my home in 1977 while serving with an Army organisation, ‘Sentinels of the Snow’. Situated on the threshold of Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib, Joshimath has an evolved cosmopolitan culture as it beckons pilgrims of different religions and creeds. The town remains appropriate for night halts and as a rallying point for the pilgrim’s progress.

The meagre resources of this town notwithstanding, its brave residents are as large-hearted as the gigantic mountains they live in. However, now a palpable feeling of loss envelops this Garhwali town as it faces the agony of its sinking landmass.

My posting at Joshimath had been fraught with multiple challenges. One of these concerned the Ocean to Sky Expedition led by Sir Edmund Hillary, the conqueror of the Everest. This expedition, that also included Hillary’s son Peter, was planned from Ganga Sagar, where the Ganga meets the sea, to any destination that they could traverse upstream against the current in their three powerful jet boats, and then, they were to climb the Akash Parbat near the Badrinath shrine.

While negotiating the mountainous terrain, their boats could eventually go no further. Rocky edges protruding from the riverbed amid the gushing waters and a waterfall became impediments. They resorted to walking, believing that they could acclimatise themselves as they walked up in the mountains. On ascending 18,000 ft, Hillary, then in his late 50s — no longer the young man he was when he climbed the Everest — fell ill, struck with high-altitude pulmonary oedema. His team suddenly found him turning blue, decaying and dying. With Hillary on his air-mattress, his comrades collapsed his tent. Wrapping him in it, they dragged him down to a lower altitude.

One of his aides raced down and contacted our post. We despatched our patrol to assist. Overcoming communication hiccups, our signallers latched onto the radio-set frequency of the expedition and elicited a response that Hillary was being brought down.

A medical officer rushed with me to the makeshift helipad, where we met the team. Being carried on a stretcher, Hillary had lamented: ‘Starting my career with a roar, I end it with a whimper.’ He touched me with his gloved hand when I responded, ‘Sir, you have many more mountains to conquer.’ Peter murmured that his father’s faith brought him alive from the valley of gods. We prayed for him as the Air Force helicopter evacuated him. A few years later, Sir Hillary was appointed New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India.