Ondrej Huserka, Wadim Jablonski establish Gangotri Gambling in Garhwal Himalaya

On October 16th at 5:00 p.m. local time Ondrej Huserka (Slovakia) and Wadim Jabłoński (Poland), after 3 days of climbing, reached a virgin peak rising above the Kedar Tal valley in the Indian Garhwal Himalayas. Their "Gangotri Gambling" leads mainly through a distinct rock pillar and to the summit of Phaalkan Meenaar tower, 5602m a.s.l. Encountered difficulties are 6c+ M6 A0, the route has 600m divided by 18 pitches. Phaalkan Meenaar in Hindi means "Falcon Tower". Thus, this peak is dedicated to Andrzej Sokołowski, nicknamed "Falcon" - a Polish climber and guide who died tragically in Tatras in September.

GANGOTRI GAMBLING by Wadim Jabłoński

The Phaalkan Meenaar is a distinct, rock tower, eye-catching from the very beginning of the Kedar Tal valley. The pillar that forms its massif starts from the very bottom of the valley. However, we decide to start our route in the middle of the pillar by traversing its lower, loose-rock parts with the gully on the left side. There are still two huge rock headwalls to climb.

On the first day, weighed down by our heavy backpacks, we reach the ledge located to the right of the saddle under the lower headwall. The biggest challenge is the approach and transport of gear across loose, deep snow. We prepar a very comfortable bivy on the ledge and fix 3 pitches above it.

On the second day, we begin by jumaring and hauling. Transport is not easy, our haulbag often gets stuck. Our advantage is the temperature - it's perfect, neither too cold nor too warm for rock climbing. After 4 pitches and a 6c+ at the end we come to the extremely loose tower. Snow covers everything, at the same time there is a total lack of ice. Every piece of rock that can potentiallly move - moves and crumbles. 2 pitches take us 5 hours. At 10 pm we reach a bivy spot under the upper headwall.

The last day is a fight through the upper headwall. We leave the haulbag with the hope of reaching the summit and rappelling in  daylight. The upper part consists of 5 pitches - steep rock, sometimes brittle. Until the end, we do not believe that we will be able to find a line leading to the summit. Ondrej manages to find another 6c +, this time up a slab. The last meters run through a strand of extremely fragile black slate. At 5 p.m. we reach the "summit boulder" and begin the tedious descent.

After 4 rappels we return to our haulbag. It’s dark already. We decide to go descend an unknown gully to the right of the pillar. The descent through slabby terrain causes some problems. Somehow however, we manage to reach easy terrain, from where we continue to the bottom of the valley. We make a bivy there at 1 a.m.

Wadim Jabłoński