Nandu Jayal

Narendra Dhar Jayal
Born	25 June 1927
Died	28 April 1958
Nationality	India
Other names	Nandu Jayal
Occupation	Major
Known for	Pioneer in Indian Mountaineering

Major Narendra Dhar Jayal, or Nandu, as he was affectionately known (died 1958), was an officer of the Bengal Sappers and the Indian Army Corps of Engineers. A legendary figure in Indian mountaineering, he was often referred to as the 'Marco Polo of Indian Mountaineering' as he had pioneered and patronized the sport of amateur mountain-climbing in the early years after Independence and set forth a blazing, though short, trail for Indian mountaineers to follow. He encouraged the youths of India to take part in mountaineering. Nandu was educated at The Doon School.

Jayal began his mountaineering career while he was a student at The Doon School, where his teachers encouraged his interest in climbing as a way to tame his somewhat unruly nature.

Jayal's first major expedition as a 16-year-old schoolboy was to the Awar Valley above Badrinath, reaching 6,000 meters. Other climbs, while still at Doon, included Trisul with Gurdial Singh, a teacher from Doon. While Singh went on to reach the peak of Trisul, where he performed a headstand asana to honor the Hindu god Shiva, Jayal noted his own feelings in lyrical terms: "The grass on which we camped was like a cushion sprinkled with tiny mauve primula and the gentle lapping of the running water recalled melodies from Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. I confess a desire to bring my efforts to an honourable conclusion here – as long as somebody got to the top – and revel in this bracing and saner altitude."

It was a remarkable transformation of Doon's most delinquent boy who had become a "gentle, perfect knight"

In 1948, Nandu Jayal went to Switzerland and acquired a Ski Teacher's Certificate, a very respectable achievement. He was appointed Chief Instructor at the Winter Warfare School, later known as the High Altitude and Winter Warfare School.

Under the leadership of the Engineer-in-Chief, Maj. Gen. Harold 'Bill' Williams, himself an eager climber, Nandu Jayal organised the first Sappers expedition to Bandarpunch successfully in 1950. As a young Captain in 1950-51, he carried out a strategic reconnaissance of the Garhwal Himalayas and was later the Indian Army liaison officer for the French Expedition to Nanda Devi in 1951. He organised and led two expeditions to Kamet; the first in 1952 when the summit team was forced back by a blizzard from just 600 metres short of the mountain and later in 1955 when he summitted - at that point of time, it was the highest that an Indian had climbed.

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