The Dream: Jonny Copp preparing for the first free ascent of the Shafat Fortress in 2007. Photo: Courtesy Johnny Copp Foundation.

A dream can start with a single photo. A picture of a climber scaling a solitary golden block in an alpine meadow against a backdrop of exotic spiked peaks planted the seeds of my dream—bouldering in the great Himalayas. I’d always fantasized about the Himalayas, but never considered going to such great lengths for bouldering. That changed in 2007, when my friends Jonny Copp and Micah Dash returned from Kashmir’s Shafat Fortress with that alluring image that left me spellbound. After their tragic death climbing in China in 2009, I made it my goal to return to the place that inspired them so much. But this time to establish my own lines on the unclimbed boulders of India.

Exploratory bouldering requires a serious commitment of time and money, and the willingness to risk an uncertain outcome. You could discover some of the most aesthetic boulders in the world. Or you could come up empty-handed. I’d played the game of chance before, but this was my first time to India’s high mountains. I had no idea what we’d find. It took a year to recruit the team—alpinist Pete Takeda, highball specialist Jason Kehl and photographer Mick Follari—and to coordinate the complex logistics.

On August 15, 2010, our journey began in India’s chaotic capital of Delhi. We spent two grueling weeks aboard a 12-passenger bus, roaming the foothills of the Himalayas in search of a highly concentrated granite boulder field in an idyllic and remote location. It was more challenging than I’d expected. Finding an unclimbed peak is easy, you can locate it on a map, but you never know if a boulder is worthy until you actually touch it.

After a month of exploration, we found exactly what I was looking for—a field of immaculate granite boulders nestled in a grassy alpine meadow surrounded by snowy 5,000-6,000 meter peaks in the majestic Miyar Valley. For 35 days, our base camp at 13,000 feet was our whole world. We explored the labyrinth of black and orange streaked stone and applied our adventurous spirit and high technical knowledge to establish over 30 first ascents. It was a progression of the bouldering discipline inherited with pure alpine values. And a dream come true.