Saxifraga pulvinaria

Just to show that Chris Chadwell really has explored for plants in places few botanists venture, kindly view the attached images of me scrambling about near to Mt. Kolahoi, one of the higher peaks in the main Kashmir valley @ some 5400m.

The images are scanned in from slides taken in the 1980s plus 2 from the 1970s made available to me by the late Oleg Polunin.

1.  View from Lidder Valley

2.  View from Upper Lidder Valley

3.  Mt. Kolahoi’s north glacier – I scrambled above the glacier onto the cliffs to the left which was home to large colonies of Meconopsis aculeata

4.  Snout of Kolahoi’s north glacier – main source of Lidder River which flows through Pahlgam

5.  A colleague negotiating slippery waterfalls to collect botanical specimens for the University of Kashmir herbarium

6.  Closer view of Mt. Kolahoi from the West.

7.  Snout of Kolahoi’s south glacier – perhaps you can make out the two porters to the left of the glacier (one with a ruck-sack with a yellow sleepa mat)

8.  On the south glacier after ‘accident’

9.  Chris with two local villagers hired as porters to carry our rucksacks as far as the ‘col’ where we had planned to camp, attempting to scale Kolahoi the next day but it was not meant to be.

10. Saxifraga pulvinaria ‘White-pitted Saxifrage’ – photographed by Oleg Polunin; recorded up to 5400m in Kashmir

11. Saxifraga pulvinaria ‘White-pitted Saxifrage’ – photographed by Oleg Polunin; recorded up to 5400m in Kashmir

I had spotted what I take to be Waldheimia glabra near the snout of the glacier and was hoping to get good photos of Saussurea simpsoniana, as well as reaching the top of the peak.

A Britisher colleague and I plus our Scottish guide, the son of a couple who ran a school in Kashmir, who had climbed to the top of the mountain before.  We carried our rucksacks & tents from Pahlgam past Aru and up a side-valley, arranging for two men from the last village to act as porters for the day to take our loads to a drop-off point, allowing them to safely return. The following day we planned our ascent.

Unfortunately, my British friend became unwell and it was decided he was not fit to attempt to climb Kolahoi, so he returned to Pahlgam.  I carried on with my guide but as the ice of the snout of the glacier was slippery and the porter’s footwear not ideal, steps needed to be cut into the ice to safely negotiate a short steep section. In the guide’s over-enthusiasm, the ice-axe he was using bounced off the ice with the sharp end going into the top of his head!  There was not much blood.  I administered first aid, bandaging him up.  He said he was fine and that we should continue.  I, correctly said a form no, imaging what could happen at any time and certainly if we went higher….  What a shame but one must always “play safe”. The fittest and strongest I had ever felt in the Himalaya. I was relieved to get the young man back to his parents (one of whom was a doctor). Thankfully the wound was not too serious and no permanent damage.   Mountains must be treated with respect. Clearly the Gods were not with me that day.

I never got another chance to found out what grew at 5400m (some 18,000′) in the Kashmir Himalaya – not that too many others know.

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