Tag: Himalayan Mountains

The story behind a three women crew’s month-long exploration of the Raru Valley. The team was made up of Anna Pfaff, Lindsay Fixmer,  Savannah Cummins.

Abbie Barronian, writing for Adventure Journal:

For a few years, Anna had heard stories of a magical region in India with dozens of unclimbed mountains. In November 2016, Anna approached me and Lindsay about joining her on an expedition, and we couldn’t pass up the chance to see this region for ourselves. Anna has traveled to India multiple times and was in the Zanskar range last time she was in India and had heard about the Raru Valley. After doing some research she decided it would be a really cool valley to explore. Anna was the team leader on this expedition, so we followed her gut instinct.

I’ve gotten the opportunity to work with a lot of amazing women during my career, and have been lucky to go on a few other all-female trips. I’m sure part of that is the nature of the times–more and more women are in the sport and so naturally we gravitate towards each other. There are also women’s climbing festivals and events popping up all over and that’s a great networking opportunity and place to find rad female partners. But I also consciously look for female partners because, let’s face it, they look better on camera…

Mick Conefrey, writing for the Financial Times:

The big surprise for me, though, was that among this group of hardened walkers and climbers, I was the baby. The oldest member was 75, the second 74 and the average age 65. Today trekking is no longer the domain of the student backpacker; the so-called “grey pound” is as visible in the Himalayas as it is in the Lamborghini showroom.

The trek we were in the midst of was a 30-day marathon, whose goal was to make a circuit of Kanchenjunga, the world’s third-tallest mountain, taking in both the north and south base camps. Unlike well-known treks to Everest and Annapurna, Kanchenjunga has not been ravaged by mass tourism and remains enticingly remote.

It has always played a secondary role to Everest, even though Kanchenjunga is only 262 metres lower, and arguably a greater challenge. First climbed in 1955 by a British team, it’s highly regarded among mountaineers but less well known to the wider public.