Legendary climber Gurdial dies at 99

Chandigarh, May 30

Gurdial Singh, the pioneering climber who led independent India’s first mountaineering expedition in 1951 and was a member of the country’s first successful expedition to Mount Everest in 1965, died today at age 99.

Born on January 1, 1924, Singh was educated in Lahore and Aligarh and joined Doon School as a teacher in 1945. It was here that he acquired his love for climbing high mountains, under the influence of three prominent English climbers on the school staff. Singh, the first Indian to become a member of the prestigious Alpine Club, was conferred with the Arjuna Award in 1965 and Padma Shri in 1967. In 2007, he was given the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award for his contributions to Indian mountaineering.

When he summitted Mount Trisul (7,120 metres) in 1951, he became famous for performing a head-stand at the peak.

At age 83, he famously said that he felt “safer while on expeditions rather than on roads of Delhi or Mumbai”. “I was among the very few who climbed mountain peaks without oxygen cylinders,” he said in 2007.

After suffering a hip fracture, Singh had been bedridden for the last few years but his mental faculties and spirits remained high until the very end.

J&K ex-Governor NN Vohra pays tribute to ‘Guruji’

Gurdial Singh, the undisputed pioneer of mountaineering in free India, passed into the Great Beyond today, a few months short of 100 years.

Addressed as ‘Guruji’ by his friends and generations of youth whom he taught geography at the Doon School for nearly three-and-a-half decades, was deeply in love with the mountains. He trekked and climbed many mountains and high peaks because he was in love with the hills, and not to become famous or to earn laurels and rewards.

An expert in Himalayan flora, Guruji was influenced by some famous English masters at Doon School — Dias, Gibson, Martyn, Holdsworth and others — to undertake organised climbing of high mountains. Over the years, he emerged as a skilful and highly respected climber, with a known disinclination for publicity. Fond of western classical music and poetry, he deeply influenced many of his students and associates — the Jayal brothers, Nandu and Nalni, Aspi Moddie, Suman Dubey and many others — to grow into respected mountaineers and leaders.

Married to the mountains, recipient of many high awards and honours, a person of high moral values and integrity, Guruji shall forever be remembered for introducing the mountaineering culture to India.

May his soul rest in eternal peace.