The Third Man Factor by John Geiger

Author:John Geiger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Canongate Books
Published: 2009-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

ON JUNE 3, 1981, PARASH MONI DAS, an experienced Himalayan climber and officer in the Indian Police Service, was caught up in a disaster following an ascent of Bhagirathi II, at 6,150 metres, one of four peaks making up the Bhagirathi massif in the Garhwal Himalaya of India. Das, twenty-eight, was climbing with two other men, Pratiman Singh, who served as an officer in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, and a mushroom farmer named Nirmal Sah, both also with Himalayan experience.

Bhagirathi II was considered technically simple, except for a forty-metre pitch of mixed rock and ice just below the summit. They roped up for the final push, with Singh leading, Sah in the middle, and Das roped to the end. Singh was climbing with such confidence up the incline that he often placed his left hand into his pocket. They reached the summit at 6 P.M., and after handshakes and a photograph, Das noticed a storm approaching from the south. They immediately began their descent. This time, Das was in the lead, with Sah the middleman, and Singh in the rear. The first two moved cautiously, but Das worried that Singh, overly pleased with himself for having broken trail on the ascent, was distracted: “His whole being seemed to betray his feeling and this was dangerous.” Das stopped to remind the others that they needed full concentration on the details of the descent. He wondered later whether this was a premonition.

Das continued down, kicking his heels into soft snow, until he reached a large boulder. He turned to face the rock and, belayed by Sah, reached the base three metres below. He looked up to see that Singh had joined Sah. Singh again had one hand in his pocket, and he seemed to get a crampon caught in the rope. He began to hop on his right leg and swing the left in order to free it. He lost his balance, plunged over the edge, first pulling Sah off, and after a momentary delay, dragging Das off the mountain as well. The three men fell four hundred metres. Das remembered only “waiting for the interminable end of the fall,” and that he had attempted to protect his face with his hands. They were still all roped together when they finally came to a rest. Indeed, Singh and Sah were lashed together, end to end, by the tangle of rope. Das, who was badly bruised but otherwise uninjured, heard Singh groaning. Das asked “Any bones broken? Any pain?” Singh, in shock, responded: “Aap Kaun Hai?” (“Who are you?”)41 He had a face wound and complained that his left leg was broken. Das then turned his attention to Sah, who was lying with his face in the snow. There was no response, so he grabbed his hood and pulled him over. Sah’s face was horribly injured, and blood from gaping wounds stained the snow. His neck was broken and the unusual shape of his rib cage indicated that he had suffered severe internal injuries.

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