This pass was named after George William Traill, the 2nd British Commissioner of Kumaon (1816-1836), as Everest was named after George Everest, the illustrious Surveyor-General of India (1830-1843). A comparison between the two, though not relevant, is interesting. Both Georges earned the distinction sometime after relinquishing their posts and even the legend of Radhanath Sikdar related to the discovery of Everest has a parallel, Malak Singh Buda, in the first crossing of the pass in 1830. Both Traill and Everest began service in India with the East India Company about the first decade of the 19th Century.
By Himalayan standards, the Pindari glacier and the Traill’s Pass do not match most of the giants. The Pindari is neither the largest nor the longest of the glaciers nor is the Traill’s Pass, at its head, the highest of passes. However, Pindari has been the most frequently visited Himalayan glacier since the mid-19th century when a bridle-path with dak bungalows at suitable intervals between there and Almora was built. Even today, it is so popular a trekking destination that a tenfold increase in the number of beds available is unable to cope with the influx.
What faces a visitor to Pindari glacier at the Zero Point, along its left lateral moraine, is an immense wall of jagged, broken ice crisscrossed with thousands of seracs and crevasses. The upper icefields of the glacier are invisible from there and the near level ice mass at its lower end at the snout below recedes into insignificance. What people call the Pindari glacier is actually a huge icefall passing over a steep slope, through which a direct ascent has yet to be made. Above this lie the ice fields of the surrounding heights and the névé basin of the glacier, some 8 kms long, separated from the ridge above with a text-book fashion bergschrund. The lowest point on the ridge at 5400 m is the Traill’s Pass. Beyond the pass to the north and east lies the Lwan valley whose catchment is the Gori ganga valley.
Trails pass is a high altitude pass named after famous explorer and is on the head of Pindari glacier which is one of the most accessible Glacier & lies on the outer ring of the Nanda Devi Sanctuary in the Kumaon Himalaya. The Pindari Glacier forms the snout of the river Pindar which forms the main tributary of river Alaknanda which further joins the Bhagirathi to form The Ganges at DevPrayag. Trails pass bridges Pindari Valley with Lwa Valley (Nandadevi East Base camp).
