Page 7 - 2000 AMA Millenium

inrun
The first recorded post war service mountaineering expedition took place when Jimmy Roberts and George Latimer, by taking annual leave from their Gurkha Battalion, together with Gurkha Rifleman Purkabahadur plus Darjeeling Sherpas Pasang and Sonam, spent the summer of 1946 carrying out a detailed recon­ naissance of Saser Kangri (25,170 feet) in the eastern Karakorams. It was almost unexplored from a mountaineering aspect and lay in Ladakh at the end of a long and interesting approach along the Central Asian trade route, far from their base in India. Leaving Srinagar in mid-May they travelled via Leh and Khardung La, a pass of 18,000 feet, before reaching Panamik, the closest habitation to Saser in early June. A journey on foot of 250 miles. D uring the next four weeks they circumnavigated the massif and identified potential routes before attempting some and having to retreat, usually following an ‘interesting experience’ or two.
As a consolation, in 1947, Charles and Jimmy quickly recruited two Gurkha soldiers and two Sherpas and made an alpine style attempt on Neo Kinta 21,000 feet. Despite a determined effort, they did not top out but it placed them in the vanguard of a growing band of service climbers with current Himalayan experience.
There was an obvious change in attitudes by a youthful service leadership, perhaps typified by John Hunt, as a result of their experiences attained by participation in modem, mobile and fluid warfare. As a consequence of the social change hastened by the War, British mountaineers, perhaps once strongly personified by Masters from public schools and Dons from Oxbridge, were now becoming typical of the general populace.
St
Porters making their way up the Karakoram during the Joint Services Gashabrum 1 Expedition.
Such notables as Joe Brown, Tom Patey, Hamish Mclnnes, Alan Blackshaw, and George Band whilst fulfilling National Service in the early 1950s, exerted a strong influence on the ethos of service mountaineering.
The introduction of the Kurt Hahn Outward Bound Training method that uses the mountains and sea for a young persons devel­ opment, with an improvement of their personal values and team leadership, was and remains a considerable influence. The instruc­ tors are invariably men and women of great character, knowledge and experience, passing on their love of the mountains, with an unbridled enthusiasm.
Before the full evolution of the single service mountaineering clubs and their sponsorship of specific expedition, the initiative rested with individuals to integrate them selves into any scheme available.
One such person was Tony Streather, soon to become well known as he quickly gained Himalayan experience. Commissioned into the Indian Army in 1945 aged 18 years, he was posted to the Zhob Militia on the North West Frontier where he spent most of the next six years. Following partition in ‘47 Tony opted to serve in Pakistan. Remaining on the Frontier, he served with irregular forces of local tribesmen with whom he spent long spells away from base patrolling the Afghan border, sometimes on foot but often with mounted groups riding hardy local ponies over vast distances.
1950 found him with the Chitral Scouts, as the last British officer, in the heart of Central Asia where the last innings of the Great Game was being played out. Here, due to his fluency of undue and local dialects, knowledge of customs, a rare understanding and rapport with the mountain tribesmen, plus an unquenchable desire for adventure, he was an ideal choice when in 1950 the Norwegians requested the help of a transport officer for their attempt to be the first team to climb Trice Mir (25,263 feet) in the Hindu Kush range of Pakistan.
Army Mountaineer
•. 4*1 '
€