Thajiwas - Valley of Rocks and Glaciers

 Thajiwas

Thajiwas valley is a famous beauty spot in Sonamarg and the  Thajiwas Range, overlooking it, is as fine a range as any of like size in Kashmir. It runs SE to NW and joins the Sindh river at Shitkari just below Sonamarg where the westward flow of the river is turned South to the Vale of Kashmir.  The overlooking igneous Thajiwas range is by no means a cragman's paradise. It affords some varied and arduous climbing and for those who are found snow and ice work, it is an excellent playground. The range culminates in 4854m Thajiwas peak and between the ridges are six fairly well defined hanging glaciers  which are steep, harder of ascent than average alpine glacier.

Glacier 1 overlooks the Sonamarg and is directly under 4854m Thajiwas peak. The Thajiwas peak was first climbed by J. Waller in 1937. It was his second attempt to this peak and were successful in reaching its summit via a 300m Couloir which was later named as Waller's Couloir. The second ascent was made by Jackson and Buzzard in 1945 but this time the route was by Glacier 2 ( Waller's descent route in 1937). 

Glacier 2 is divided from Glacier 1 by two parallel rock ridges running up to the higher buttresses or subsidiary summits of  Thajiwas peak.

Glacier 2 is bounded to the south by a series of very steep buttresses and rock ribs that culminate the summits of  Cefn Carnedd 4800m, The Blade 4,820 meters and The Arrow 4830 meters forming the south wall of Glacier 2. 

They were first climbed by Buzzard and Jackson in 1945 ascending Amphitheatre Gully, traversing Umbrella peak to the snow col between the two peaks and then up the snow to the summit.

The structure of the rocks between Glaciers 2 and 3 is of two huge crags or low lying cliffs buttressing two peaks- Umbrella Peak 4798 meters and Cefn Carnedd 4800. The lower buttressing cliff, Swallow Crag, is broad and split by a deep central gully. The next buttressing cliff some 800 metres in height juts boldly into the valley is  Glacier Crag

Umbrella peak, first climbed by Noyce and Jones from Glacier 3 in October 1944, rises in a series of broken rock escarpments to a summit cone of rock bounded on the right by a sweeping snow ridge usually corniced.

The largest among all the glaciers of the valley is Glacier 3 and its shape is roughly triangular.  Its backwall is surrounded by a 4900m long serrated ridge known as Kazim Pahalin Bal. The ridges overlloks the largest glacier and has three projecting pinnacles ( East, Central and West) all close to 4900. climbed by Johnson in 1945. Eastern pinnacle can be easily attacked from the col between Valehead peak and Kazim ridge. Among those 3 pinnacles, Eastern pinnacle is often climbed by local mountaineers of the valley and i also climbed it via same col.

Valehead and Mosquito peak stand at the head of the Thajiwas valley first climbed by L. Watts party in 1933 and C.W.F Noyce in 1944 respectively. 

Glacier 4,5, 6 and Bear valley aren't describes in this because the author hasn't explore the area yet.