The Roskelley Collection by John Roskelley

Author:John Roskelley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mountaineers Books
Published: 2012-11-02T16:00:00+00:00

In November 1951 two British mountaineers, Eric Shipton and Michael Ward, and a young Sherpa, Sen Tensing, crossed from Nepal over a twenty-thousand-foot snow saddle they later named the Menlung La and descended into a great, glacial basin. Centered within the basin was a magnificent double-summit peak isolated within a ring of smaller mountains very similar to that of Nanda Devi’s twin summits. In Shipton’s words, “On every side its colossal granite walls were pale and smooth as polished marble.” He later named the peak Menlungtse. It was clearly beyond 1950s technology and techniques to climb.

Shipton was at a loss as to their location. He knew they were on the central spine of the Himalayas, but where? Standing on a rock pinnacle gazing down the only drainage gorge out of the basin, Shipton realized he was at the headwaters of the Menlung Chu, a river whose mouth had been reached by the first Everest Reconnaissance Expedition in 1921. The magnificent peak to their south was Gauri Shankar. They were in Tibet illegally.

Their only recourse was clear: retrace their steps over the Menlung La. If they didn’t, there was a good chance of capture and the possibility of being accused as spies by the Chinese. But great explorers are born with a heart for madness, a flippant attitude toward regulations. To explore is to chance.

Every mountaineer has a little exploration in him. On the retreat from Gauri Shankar in 1979; Kim Schmitz and I broke away from the main expedition for a day and skirted Gauri Shankar’s west ridge by running up the Rong Shar Chu trail. Unlike Shipton, our goal was to intentionally enter Tibet illegally and hassle the Chinese border guards if there were any. All this just to say, “I was in Tibet.” To our surprise, the border was unmanned. Only a cement marker with red Chinese writing inscribed on its four sides indicated we had fulfilled our goal.

Shipton wrote, “Even in the old days, to be caught in Tibet without a special permit was a serious matter; now, with the country in control of the Chinese, there was no knowing what our fate might be.”

The party was joined by Bill Murray, Tom Bourdillon, and their Sherpas, who had followed over the Menlung La several days later. Shipton decided to attempt an escape down the Menlung Chu and the Rong Shar Chu to Nepal despite the risk of discovery at the Chuwar Monastery at the rivers’ confluence, or at a Tibetan fort, or dzong, on the Rong Shar Chu that was manned by fierce soldiers.

The expedition surprised two yak herders walking up the Menlung Chu and, some time later, women from the monastery gathering fuel. The women seemed unconcerned and went about their chores. Late that night the expedition sneaked through the village and past the fort without being detected despite the inevitable barking that precedes visitors into every Tibetan village. But they left bootprints in the trail below the dzong.

Early the next morning as they hiked along

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