ONE OF the world’s leading Himalayan mountaineers is due to outline plans for a peace park in the world’s highest conflict zone at the first Joss Lynam memorial lecture in Dublin tonight.
Harish Kapadia (66), who has recorded 21 first ascents in his 40-year Himalayan career, is a distinguished Indian climber, author and long-time editor of the Himalayan Journal. He has led five international expeditions with French and British climbers, including Chris Bonington, and almost lost his life in 1974 when he fell into a crevasse at 6,200m in the Nanda Devi sanctuary close to India's second-highest peak.
Kapadia, who visited Connemara yesterday on his first trip to Ireland, lost his son, Nawang, in 2000, who was killed in Kashmir while serving with the Gurkha unit of the Indian army. Since then, the mountaineer has dedicated his life to settlement of the Kashmir problem. He has promoted plans for a peace park in the Siachen glacier region of the Karakoram mountains where Pakistani and Indian troops have fought across the world’s highest battlefield.
The lecture at Trinity College Dublin (Edmund Burke theatre) is at 8pm tonight – tickets at the door or at mountaineering.ie.
