Since 2008 Derek has organised numerous exploratory mountaineering expeditions to the Indian Himalaya where he and team members successfully climbed many major peaks for the first time. In 2016 and 2017 he eventually managed to secure climbing permits for the East Karakoram, a sensitive area for which access was severely restricted for non-Indian nationals until relatively recently. In this talk he will describe highlights from his two exploratory expeditions to the Nubra Valley region of Ladakh which resulted in the first ascents of several hitherto unclimbed 6,000 m peaks.