Nyegi Kangtsang

The Nyegi Kangsang at 7047 M is one of the highest mountains in Arunachal Pradesh. The Kameng, one of the most important rivers in Arunachal Pradesh, is fed by the Nyegi Kangsang Glacier which stretches along its eastern flank

The northern flank of the mountain is drained over by the Subansiri river. 

Arunachal Pradesh in eastern India is a kind of forgotten land and is the only place where tribal life is perceived as non-tribal. Development of any kind has not reached the natives and there are people there who haven’t seen vehicles leave aside trains and planes. They live in and on jungle.

Hunting is still the main source of food and animism is still believed in.Because of the lack of roads and thick jungles, the exploratory treks and expeditions have not made much progress. The area around Tawang is the most touristic place and  only mountain like Gorichen are sought after for climbing as others are still not approachable.Nyegi Kangtsang is the highest unclimbed peak in Arunachal for sure and maybe in Indian Himalayas as well.

We attempted it twice in 2006 and 2007 but could not succeed mainly due to its isolation, long trek through dense jungles, unreliable porter support and unpredictable weather at most of the year.Neygi Kangtsang was first attempted in 1996 by a team of Nehru Mountaineering Institute (NIM) but their claim for having climbed it was rejected by IMF on technical grounds.

They approached the mountain from eastern route through lower Subansiri district. However, we decided to approach it through northern approach through east Kameng district whereas the peak lies in west kameng district. Our trek started from the district HQ at Seppa and thereafter the route was not known.

Village tracks existed only till three days of the trek and beyond that even locals were not aware of the route confidently as they only venture out ahead of their villages for hunting and do not go much ahead.
We continued on the basis of maps ( which were outdated and were not of much use) and dead reckoning. The going was tough as the fresh route has to be made by cutting through bamboo forest and wild undergrowth.

Due to thick jungles, it rains there almost every day thus making the route slippery and slushy. We trudged on for almost two weeks when the local porters who had not even come this far ever, got tired and many of them ran away.

Perforce we had to change our plan and move ahead with a smaller team as only limited amount of ration and equipment could be carried by team members. Also, after about 20 days or so, the weather packed up and it started snowing heavily. We pitched up the camp near a water source, a lake and waited for the snowfall to stop.

The lady luck was not with us as it continued to snow for almost 6 days without any respite. We were low on supplies now and were still some way from base camp. Climbing the peak was impossible now as we neither had much of supplies left nor can we move fast due to the whole route being covered with thigh deep fresh snow, making the move very tiring and difficult.

Navigation too became difficult due to constant cloud cover. The conditions forced us to call off the attempt and trace our way back. Even that became difficult as whatever little track was made by our team while inducting was now gone and the entire landscape has changed due to heavy snow.

It took a huge toll on our team but we managed to trace our way back to Seppa. Defeated, tired but not demotivated. We shall try again and we did go again next year.

But this year although we faced the similar challenges but the team was recalled back almost midway due to spate of mountaineering incidents in other areas.