Mt. White Needle

White Needle peak at 6930 M is a part and third highest summit in Nun Kun Mountain massif of the western Himalayan range, located near the Suru valley on Kargil Padum road in Zanskar region of Indian Himalayas.

Nun and Kun are very well known peaks of this region and are frequently attempted. However, White Needle in its comparison gets less attention. 
 
I climbed this peak along with four French climbers with whom I went as a Liaision Officer (LO), being nominated by Indian Mountaineering Foundation.  The concept of LO was established for assisting foreign climbers in climbs in restricted areas close to ambiguous borders between India, Pakistan and China in the disputed territories of Kashmir.  

The duties of LO involve liaison with local civil and military authorities pertaining to permits and access issues, assisting the team in procuring administrative support from local authorities and to arrange help including rescue in the unfortunate event of any accident during climb and passage to the mountain.  LO is not duty bound to climb the peak and but can do so if one wants as well as when agreed by the team.  My team consisted of four climbers  including a couple from France who were common citizens who had come to India for the first time to climb in Indian Himalayas. They were school teachers by profession and friends. Language was the only barrier but the age old hand symbols , smattering of English and lot of smiles and laughs paved the way for an excellent bonhomie and the successful climb.
 
We flew to Srinagar, stayed in house boats ( first time for all of us) and then drove to the road head camp over three days of bone jarring and soul tampering road journey from Srinagar to Kargil and onward to Padum in Zanskar.  The French were bewildered, mesmerised and shocked even before the expedition began in true sense. 
 
We began the trek for Base camp after being dropped on a patch of so called road without any signage or sign of semblance of start of any route. However, the mule driver knew better and we trudged on. Not even an hour has passed before we came across a seemingly unsurpassable challenge of crossing a sizable nallah which at almost 20 m width was more wider than many rivers in plains.

The icing on the cake was when we removed our shoes, folded up the trouser( French simply removed them) and stepped into the water. Probably holding a naked electric wire would have been better. Water was freezingy cold, fast flowing and the surface was strewn with sharp and slippery rocks. The mules had gone over and were merrily grazing waiting for us. Most of us were dead quiet and two were shouting with pain. We held each other’s hand and battled on. This was the isolated incidence which became the motivating factor which enabled us to endure the challenges of the hard climb in the future.
 
However, there were no porters hired by French as they were probably low on budget and we all carried heavy loads to the two camps which were established for the climb.

The climb was long and ardous over long glaciers. It was  technically not a difficult peak but involved long hauls and walking over soft snows. We managed to climb the peak over the next three weeks. The water in the river did not seem too cold on return.