“Never take a mountain for granted” – Ishan Sharma
Not many know about Mt. Frey, but those who do, know that this is one of the most beautiful and difficult mountains to climb in India. A beauty in the Himalayas, Mt. Frey was a dream peak to climb for Ishan, someone who knows no limits when it comes to adventures in life. His story with regard to climbing Mt. Frey is an inspiring tale to those who aspire to be mountaineers. And that’s exactly what he shares with us… a story to inspire!
Mount Frey is a difficult mountain to climb. Tell us about your experience.
It was a very varied experience. When we say we are climbing a mountain, we end up thinking about that one instant when we reach the summit, look at the view and forget how we got there. The journey was a mixture of different kinds of experiences and once on top of Frey, it was absolutely worth it.
Technically, From Chaurikhang, back to Chaurikhang it took us four days.
DAY – 1 The first day was called Load Ferry. So, Load Ferry essentially means that you carry your load like, food, utensils, cylinders. All of us had to carry around 15kgs of load, per person till the base camp of Frey, where we left our luggage. That day it was snowing really bad and the weather was not favourable for Load Ferrying at all, but we had to do what was planned.
DAY – 2 The next day we took our personal luggage, just the essentials that we required for the next two days. Along with that we carried some extra items like, ready to eat noodles, packed food, chicken and some utensils. Part of the things we carried were our stuff, part of it was kitchen equipment and tents. We reached the camp at Frey on the day two by the afternoon and we did nothing during the evening.
DAY – 3 We started around 2 am on the third day. This was the day we reached the summit and then came back by 3 pm. So, that was around 11-12 hours of mountaineering. After that we were too tired to go down and the weather was not favourable. So, we spent the night again at the camp of Frey.
DAY – 4 On the fourth day, we woke up early and had to Load Ferry again. We had consumed all the food, but we still had utensils and other things to carry. And then we made it back to Chaurikhang.
How different was Mount Frey from the other mountains you have climbed? What are your dream peaks to climb, like every mountaineer has one?
Mt. Frey was a very technical mountain, unlike anything I’ve done in the past. The gradient of climbing was also much higher. Mt. Frey was very rocky and the amount of snow was very intense. There were moments when my legs, up till my waist were covered in fresh snow and if you don’t take out your legs properly, chances are you will fracture your legs. I’d never experienced that before.
Mt. Frey was the No.1 on my “To climb list”. There is a story behind this. So, back in 2015 when I completed my Basic Mountaineering Course, Salwat sir (Team GBL) had already done his basic course by then and he had told me about this beautiful mountain called Mt. Frey. Till then I wanted to climb the Everest like any other mountaineering aspirant, but in 2015, during my basic course, I’d just sit at the camp and look at Mt. Frey. From that time on, Mt. Frey was the most beautiful mountain I’d ever seen. In fact in 2019 when I decided to do my Advance Mountaineering Course, the applications for Frey were not available. One of the main reasons why I applied in Himalayan Mountaineering Institute again was so that I could look at Frey again.
There is a very beautiful mountain in the Swiss Alps called Matterhorn. I put it No.2 on the list of the most beautiful mountains after Mt. Frey. Before I climb Everest or any other mountain, my heart would be at Matterhorn.
What were your thoughts when you were about to start the climb to Mt. Frey?
I was very excited. I was reminding myself constantly that I’ve worked very hard to get here. Another thing was, I kept telling myself that the next two days, I will remember for the rest of my life. I could remember it for two reasons, either I would make a great excuse or I would make a great story. I get to choose how I remember it and I choose to make a great story.
What were your thoughts after reaching the summit?
I thought I will go on top of Frey and start crying and my tears would freeze mid-way. But nothing of that sort happened. When I got to the summit, it was definitely a satisfying feeling, but it wasn’t like the way anybody would anticipate. It was very different because when you’re actually at the summit, you realize that it is just half done. Going up is optional and coming down is mandatory. Yes, there was a sense of satisfaction and a sense of gratitude, but when I reached on top, I was not in that zone wherein I was shedding tears of joy.
However, for the first time in my life I got to see Mt. Everest. There are many other ways to see the Everest, but I saw it from another peak. For example, there is a Micro-light plane from Kathmandu that goes around Everest and comes back and you can see the Everest from the sky. You can also view Everest from the Everest base camp, but looking at Everest from another mountain that you just climbed is a bonus, especially after around 11-12 hours of climbing. I told myself that if I ever see Everest, I’ll see it in worthy light. The first time I saw the Everest, I was on top of Mt. Frey.
Any problems or dangers that you faced during the climb?
Absolutely! So, there is a thing called “Anchoring,” that is, you either tie a rope around a big rock or around a natural anchor like a tree, but there aren’t any trees at that altitude. Or you use technical equipments that will hold the rope. So at one point, we had tied our rope around a very big rock and around ten of us successfully used that rope to climb up and climb down. There were three people who faced trouble. There was this one guy from the Army and as he was getting down, that huge boulder slipped and it was about to almost topple him. If not kill him, it would cause him permanent damage. It just missed him by a few inches and since his entire weight was on the rock, he was weightless at that point. He could barely manage to save himself. There were other two also who were dependent on the rope, but they managed to be safe. But this was an incident where if anybody would be hurt, at that altitude, there was no scope of rescue. We had come a far way from Chaurikhang.
Frey, like I said is a very rocky peak. And because of the snow, the rock kind of gets covered by it. So it is difficult to pick the rock. There were moments we had to rock climb and fix-rope. There were moments when I was rock climbing and I could feel that the rock is about to fall and if it would fall, the person behind me would get hit. So I had to make sure that the rock doesn’t fall. And I think even the others ensured that, but even that could’ve been extremely dangerous.
Now that you look back on the experience. How different is the feeling now compared to then?
Very different. At that moment I couldn’t digest it, but now when I think about it, I’ve digested it partially. I know that it was once in a lifetime experience. I was really lucky to get passage to Frey top and back. When I look back now, I realise that there are so many things we got exposure to. It was so cold there and we lived in a place where there was absolutely nothing else. During the advanced course training, we lived in the campus where batches would come and instructors would be familiar faces. Here things were very different. There was no civilisation around us and the experiences varied. People kept getting stuck in fresh snow and the wind was so intense that there were moments that we had to wake up in the middle of the night and hold the tent, so that it doesn’t fly off.
Was there any point during the climb where you felt like you might not be able to make it? What kept you motivated to keep going?
One of the criterias for climbing Mt. Frey was that the basic course had to be done recently, but I’d done it far back in the day. So I thought I wouldn’t go, but one hour before it started, the instructors told me that I can do it and that I had to pack up my stuff immediately. Hence I was going through a turmoil of emotions throughout.
After the second day’s Load Ferry, I was so fatigued. It had never happened in my life before… I just wanted to lie down and do nothing. One of my friends came up to me and told me that I had “Glacieritis” I don’t even know if it’s a real thing! He probably made it up. But that scared me at that time because I didn’t want to fall sick on the mountain, so I immediately got up. This was one such moment when I genuinely wanted to just lie down and stay like that, but what kept me going was when he told me that I was suffering from a particular problem.
Any tips for those who aspire to climb Mt. Frey?
Not just Mt. Frey, but any other mountain for that matter. Never take a mountain for granted and not just Mt. Frey, but if your preparation is less, you shouldn’t do it. Do not wait for the odds to be in your favour, but instead make sure that the odds are in your favour. So, I’d just say that know what you’re signing up for. Yes, best news comes after the hardest climbs.
Can you tell us something interesting about Mt. Frey that you learnt while you were there?
Mt. Frey is named after a famous mountaineer named George Frey. It is believed that George Frey was on a mission to climb Frey along with Tenzing Norgay, but before they started, they got into an argument. George Frey with confidence did not listen to the advice of Tenzing Norgay to put on his crampons and eventually fell and died. Legend has it that George Frey’s Ice axe and crampons are still lying at the base of Mt. Frey.
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