For Runa Dey, the inspiration to face and overcome daunting challenges lies in literature. The 47-year-old Bengali schoolteacher is credited with becoming the “first Bengali woman” to successfully climb the notorious Longstaff Col (5,910 metres) located amidst the Nanda Devi East peaks and Pachu Col (5,400 metres) situated on the ridge of Nanda Lapak peak during the same expedition on June 15 and 20, respectively.
A col is a mountain pass — the highest part of a road between two higher mountaintops.
The elevation of Longstaff Col might not sound challenging for a seasoned mountaineer, but the treacherous nature of the climb speaks volume of it. The Col is considered to be Camp I towards the Nanda Devi East peak.
The long Jummering face to the intermediate camp
“The climb to Longstaff Col is very treacherous. One has to trek for 16 hours from the advance base camp to reach here. This is quite strenuous because of steep slopes infested with loose boulders and that’s why it is prone to fatal falls. Mind you, there is no margin for error,” said Dey, who lives at Nalin Sarkar Street near Hatibagan in north Calcutta.
“A hanging camp which is usually at a distance of six hours from the advance base camp is often found missing as the ridge is highly prone to rock fall. In fact, the last leg of crossing is more challenging as cascading water lines the steep trail. Those make the stretch quite slippery to manoeuvre,” she said.
Scaling great heights
Dey draws inspiration from literature to embrace new challenges. “Starting from Shonku Maharaj to a large number of Bengali authors, the desire to explore and overcome the odds is widely portrayed in Bengali literature. These days, Bengali women are also coming out of the four walls of their homes and scaling great heights in the realm of mountaineering.”
Dey started mountaineering in 2014 and is credited to be the “first Bengali woman” to cross the Traill’s Pass in the Nanda Devi range in 2022.
“This is a testimonial to the fact that Runa Dey, a trekker rather than a professional climber, ascends to Longstaff Col which is technically very demanding. It’s really good to see more women trekkers and climbers coming forward in scoring important achievements in mountaineering,” said Everester and explorer Debabrata Mukherjee.
The team consisted of Raju Chakraborty, Runa Dey and Sumanta Bose from Bengal, Mayukh Banik from Himachal Pradesh, Chandramauli Singh from Rishikesh, Srikumar M. from Tamil Nadu and Jibin Joseph from Kerala. High-altitude porters Lopsang Sherpa and Lakchong Sherpa from Darjeeling, Dev Singh, Pratap Singh and Narender Singh accompanied the mountaineers.
“Climbers generally avoid this area, as evident by the relatively few climbing attempts made in previous years. Logistics are a huge deciding factor,” said Raju Chakraborty, the team leader.
“More importantly, restrictions play a significant role in limiting climbing attempts in this area. If you cross over Longstaff Col, you will enter the Nanda Devi inner sanctuary, which is not permitted by the Indian government. So the moment you try to do any expedition in this area, obtaining permission is very difficult, making people understand that you are not going to cross the col, rather you will touch it and come down or ascend Nanda Devi East,” said Chakraborty.
Runa Dey holds the Tricolour after climbing Longstaff Col
“For us, ascending the Longstaff Col was 16 hours of strenuous climb, divided into two days, as we were able to pitch three camps on the route,” he said.
“More so, Dey is also the first woman climber in the world to ascend Pachu Col. However, we could not descend to Pachu Glacier from the col due to bad weather. It’s an alpine-style climb and a pretty tough one,” he said.
Veteran mountaineer Basanta Singha Roy is all praise for the team. “Climbers should explore the lesser-known destinations on and off. Heartfelt congratulations to the entire team, especially Runa Dey, for successfully climbing the cols. Both the cols are indeed challenging and highly technical climbs, making the entire team’s effort commendable,” he said.