Harish Kapadia, as his name suggests, is a kapada merchant. Sitting crosslegged in his shop, M/s Ramdas Bhagwandas, from noon till about ten at night, he sells cloth. Stacks of them, wholesale, for the calico giant Raymonds. The shop is located in the Vithalwadi locality of Bombay, the largest and oldest cloth market in Asia. But this kapadia has another life, something his businessmen colleagues and clients would frown upon if they only knew. Harish Kapadia is India´s best-known mountain climber and adventurer, who regularly disappears from his Vithalwadi shop and Malabar Hill apartment to go exploring in the deep Himalaya. He has climbed everywhere in the Indian Himalaya from Kashmir to the Northeast, summitting hard summits in the company of some of the world´s best climbers, such as Chris Bonington, Dick Renshaw, Victor Saunders and Stephen Venables. Mr Kapadia has also almost single-handedly helped inculcate a passion for the mountains and a sense of adventure among India´s urban professionals, who today make a small but dedicated group. The Indian climbers Mr Kapadia is closest to are Muslim Contractor, Zerksis Boga and Monesh Devjani. Among Sherpas, he climbs often with Pasang Temba.
"I have always climbed in my own group of friends and do not go with national teams and so on," says Mr Kapadia, whose expedition support staff invariably come from Harkot village in Almora which lies on the famous trail to the Pindari Glacier.
Since he started climbing 35 years ago, after undergoing training at India´s two mountaineering institutes in Darjeeling and Uttarkashi, Mr Kapadia has concentrated on interesting peaks rather than the "big names. He has climbed a total of 33 peaks so far. His main contribution to Himalayan climbing has been to explore unknown areas and to open up "climbing possibilities", as he terms it. Some of Mr Kapadia´s major ascents have been Devtoli (6788m), Bandarpunch West (6102m), Parilungbi (6166m) and Lungser Kangri (6666m), the highest peak of the Rupshu range in Ladakh.
Not limiting himself to climbing, Mr Kapadia is also an Himalayan archivist and editor, and a custodian of Indian mountaineering lore. He edits the respected Himalayan Journal, published by the Himalayan Club, which was started by gentlemen climbers of British India back in 1928. Unlike the "official mountaineering´ promoted by government, military, police and paramilitary units, the Himalayan Club is the centre of true "amateur climbing´ in India. The mountaineers of Mr Kapadia´s strain head for the rock and ice because of love of adventure and personal achievement, rather than in response to the commandant´s bark.