In Alpinist 63, you’ll find the second and final part of our series on the history of Nanda Devi and nearby peaks in India’s Garhwal Himalaya. Pete Takeda’s effort to trace a mysterious rumor involving a covert CIA operation on the sacred mountain known as the headwaters of the Ganges, as well as to investigate expeditions’ environmental effects from 1940 through the Cold War to the present day, proves nearly as monumental as Nanda Devi herself. Included also are the insightful contributions of environmental humanities professor Meera Baindur, world-renowned alpinists Julie-Ann Clyma and Martin Moran and Piolets d’Or Asia Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Harish Kapadia, who explore the legends and communities swirling like unsettled snow around the summits of Nanda Devi, Nanda Devi East and Nanda Kot.
Elsewhere in the issue, Katsutaka “Jumbo” Yokoyama offers an in-depth look into the first ascent of Sun Patch Spur, a nearly six-kilometer-long linkup of K7 West and Badal Peak in the Karakoram Range of Pakistan. In “Through the Canvas,” Canadian artist Jenna Robinson probes the subtle balance of light and texture in alpine landscapes. And you’ll certainly rethink bailing—in more than one sense—upon reading Doug McCarty’s account of the frostbite-inducing New Year’s Eve he spent on the summit of Montana’s Granite Peak in 1972, or Szu-ting Yi’s recollection of her ambitious attempt to traverse 43 peaks along the Continental Divide in Wyoming’s Wind River Range.
The whimsy in Whitney Clark’s and Jerry Auld’s mountain writing promises contemplative inspiration, while David Stevenson and Shawnté Salabert both comb through past geographies in search of more than simple answers. And Paula Wright celebrates the community-oriented spirit of longtime rescuer Maryanne Reiter, while Katherine Indermaur celebrates the spirit of vulnerability at the heart of Indian Creek in southeastern Utah.—and much, much more….