One of the most famous names in Indian mountaineering, Balwant Sandhu, has been killed in a road accident in Delhi.

Sandhu, a retired colonel in the Indian Army, was hit by a speeding car outside the Indian Mountaineering Foundation headquarters on the 3rd December.

He was taken to the Research and Referral Army Hospital in New Delhi but failed to regain consciousness and passed away on the 10th.

He was a former president of the Himalayan Club, a former Director of the Nehru Himalayan Institute and an Honorary Member of the Alpine Club.

Sandhu made a highly successful career in mountaineering but is perhaps best remember in the UK for his first ascent of Changabang in 1974 with Chris Bonington, Martin Boysen, Dougal Haston, Doug Scott and Chewang Tachei.

The Indo-British team, jointly led by Bonington and Sandhu, was forced to make a circuitous route to the summit, first crossing the difficult Shipton Col to reach the inner Nanda Devi Sanctuary, and then climbing the south face of Kalanka to reach the East Ridge of Changabang.

In 1979 Sandhu co-led a successful Indo-New Zealand expedition to Rataban (6,166m) in the Garhwal, and two years later a successful Indian ascent of Nanda Devi (7,816m).

He joined up with Scott again in 1981 on the expedition that climbed the East Ridge of Shivling in the Gangotri, though Sandhu was defeated close to the summit on an attempt at another new line.

In 1984 he co-led the Indo-Japanese expedition that made the first ascent of Mamostong Kangri (7,516m) in the East Karakoram, one of the highest unclimbed peaks in India. Sandhu was a successful summiteer.

In 1985 he co-led two successful Indo-French expeditions with Jean-Claude Marmier. The first, more of a 'training trip' for something bigger', climbed Kabru Dome (6,600m) from Sikkim, while the second - the something bigger - resulted in a 'tour de force' on Kamet (7,756m), with the first ascent of the difficult West Face and West Ridge. He returned to this area in 1989 to attempt a new route on neighbouring Mukat Parvat (7,242m)

In 1988 he ran a training camp for paratroopers in Spiti and during the expedition made the first ascent of Manirang II (6,100m) together with his German wife Helga, whom he had married in 1976.

He continued to explore other areas of the Indian Himalaya, such as Kinnaur, and in 1996 again joined Doug Scott on a British expedition that became the first group of foreign climbers to reach North East Sikkim since the early 1950s. There he made the first ascent of Chombu East (5,745m).

Sandhu was a genial companion and will be sadly missed by his friends around the world.
 

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