Traill's Pass

Pindari Kanda Traill's Pass (el. 5,300 m or 17,400 ft) is a mountain pass through the Himalayas located between Nanda Devi and Nanda Kot peaks[1] in the Uttarakhand state in the districts of Pithoragarh and Bageshwar in India.

Trail's Pass
Elevation	5,312 m (17,428 ft)
Location	Uttarakhand , India
Range	Himalaya
Coordinates	30°19′10″N 80°01′40″E

It is situated at the end of Pindari glacier and links Pindari valley to Milam valley (Lawan Gad) and is said to be very difficult to cross. The pass was reached in 1830 by G.W. Traill, the first British Deputy Commissioner of Kumaon division. In 1926, it was crossed by Hugh Ruttledge.[2]

People from Johar Valley and Pindar Valley attempted to cross it for trade. Budha Malak Singh of Supi village of Bageshwar District of Uttarakhand State was the first man to cross it 1830 after 100 years. Later Mr. Trail also attempted to cross the pass but failed, though the pass was since then named as Trail's Pass, earlier it was called "Pindari Kanda". Trail's Pass (el. 5,312 m) is a mountain pass through the Himalayas located between the unnamed southern shoulder of Mt. Nanda Devi East and Changuch (Western shoulder of Mt. Nanda Kot) peaks in Uttarakhand state in the districts of Bageshwar and Pithoragarh. It is situated at the head of Pindari glacier and Trails pass bridges Pindari Valley with LwanValley (Nandadevi East Base camp) and is said to be very difficult to cross. Though Pindari glacier is visited by many people every year, yet Trail's Pass, which is at its top remains an elusive goal.

By Himalayan standards, the Pindari glacier and the Trail's Pass do not match most of the giants. The Pindari is neither the largest nor the longest of the glaciers nor is the Trail's Pass, at its head, the highest of passes. However, Pindari has been the most frequently visited Himalayan glacier since the mid-19th century when a bridle-path with dak bungalows at suitable intervals between there and Almora was built. Even today, it is so popular a trekking destination that a tenfold increase in the number of beds available is unable to cope with the influx.

What faces a visitor to Pindari glacier at the Zero Point, along its left lateral moraine, is an immense wall of jagged, broken ice criss-crossed with thousands of seracs and crevasses. The upper icefields of the glacier are invisible from there and the near level ice mass at its lower end at the snout below recedes into insignificance. What people call the Pindari glacier is actually a huge icefall passing over a steep slope, through which a direct ascent has yet to be made. Above this lie the icefields of the surrounding heights and the névé basin of the glacier, some 8 km long, separated from the ridge above with a text-book fashion bergschrund. The lowest point on the ridge at 5312 m is the Trail's Pass. Beyond the pass to the north and east lies the Lwan valley whose catchment is the Gori ganga valley.

Pindar river which forms the main tributary of river Alaknanda which further joins the Bhagirathi to form The Ganges at Dev Prayag.

Since 1830, Trail's pass has been attempted by more than 90 teams, until now only 20 teams are known to have succeeded. Most recently Traill's Pass was crossed by a group from Uttarakhand in October 2021[3]

Teams are listed below:

SNO. YEAR TEAM

1. 1830:Malak Singh, Supi, Bageshwar.

2. 1855: Adolf Schlagintweit

3. 1861: Captain Ed Smyth

4. 1899: Kurt Buch

5. 1926: Hughe Ruttledge with wife

6. 1930: Hughe Stenlorge

7. 1931: Devan Singh Martolia

8. 1936: August Gansser

9. 1941: S.S. Khera

10. 1994: Nainital Mountaineering Club Nanital.

11. 2009: Martin Moran, England June

12. 2009: Basanta Singha Roy along with 3 members and 4 Sherpas of Mountaineers' Association of Krishnanagar crossed Trail's Pass on 30 August 2009.

13. 2009: Bhadreswar Pathfinder Adventurers (in September)

14. 2013: Himalpinist - Dhruv Joshi, Bharat Bhushan and Vineet kumar Saini (May-June); smallest team so far.

15. 2015: Dhruv Joshi, Ulrich - Karen Rauner (September-October)

16. 2016: HITAM (Himalaya trekkers and mountaineer) largest group to date (12 members, 11 porters) (September-October)

17. 2017: Major Chirag Chatterjee and team, Indian Army (six members) (September)[4][5]

18. 2017 Himalpinist-Dhruv Joshi, Narendra Kumar, Ravi Bangera, Prashant Sawant, Aberrant Wanderers - Sanket Patil (youngest to date) (September-October) second smallest team [6]

19. 2019-September: Tanmoy Dam, Bidyut Das, Ashis Das, Siddheswar Khearu, Sankar Sarkar, Rahul Guha, Sayantan Dutta and Monojit Basu successfully crossed the pass without any health issues.

Dawa and Tengin Sherpa supported the team. Rupsingh Ji and Mohon guided the team.

20. 2021 October by team from Uttarakhand. Team members were Araib Hasan (Bageshwar), Nitin Bhardwaj (Haridwar), Dinesh Chandra Singh (guide, Jatoli), Dev Singh, Pratap Singh (HAP from Wacham), Indra Singh, Pravin Singh ( Hap from Jhuni)[7]

21. 2022 June: The team consisted of Jibin Joseph (Kerela), Sumanta Bose (West Bengal), Runa Dey (West Bengal) and Raju Chakraborty (West Bengal). Support staff were Balwant Singh (Sr. Guide), Mohan Singh (Guide), Tara Singh (HAP), Dev Singh (HAP), Pratap Singh (HAP) and Govind Singh (HAP) all from Jatoli and adjacent Villages, Uttarakhand. All members successfully crossed the pass from Pindari Valley (Pindari ABC) to Milam Valley side (Nanda Devi-East ABC) on 14 June 2022. The expedition was approved by Indian Mountaineering Foundation and team leader was Raju Chakraborty.

Note: Runa Dey - The first woman from West Bengal and second from India to cross the pass. Jibin Joseph - The first man from Kerela to cross the pass.

22. 2023 September: In September 2023, a group of eight individuals affiliated to Climbers' Circle achieved a significant milestone by successfully crossing the Traill's Pass. This was accomplished on the morning of September 27, 2023, at around 08:00 AM.

The team had the following members: Tapan Mukherjee, Bhaskar Biswas, Subrata Datta, Santosh Kumar Sharma, Tithi Paul, Dipta Bhandary, Sankhadeep Mondal, Abhishek Das.

The expedition was supported by Mohan Singh Danu and others.

The expedition was officially sanctioned and approved by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, with Abhishek Das serving as the team leader.

Tithi Paul holds the distinction of being the second woman from West Bengal to successfully cross the pass.

23.2023 September:A team of 4 individuals named Rajat Podder (West Bengal),Rouhin Podder (West Bengal),Samir Halder(West Bengaal) and Satheesh Gunashekhar (Karnataka) crossed the Traill's pass on 27th September at 9.00 am.The trekking expedition was a joint venture of Paye Paye Travels and Footprints Travels.

The supporting staffs were Harish Singh, Narendra Singh and Dev Singh.