Frank Smythe stumbled on the valley by accident in 1931.
The valley's "discovery" in 1931 was a route-finding error — Frank Smythe and Eric Shipton descended from a failed attempt on Kamet 7756m and walked into Bhyundar Valley by mistake. Smythe came back in 1937 with a month's supplies; his 1938 book renamed it forever.WHY NOBODY KNOWS
In Jun 1931, Smythe, Shipton and R.L. Holdsworth were descending from the first successful summit of Kamet 7756m. Lost in mist near Bhyundar Pass, they stumbled into an alpine meadow ringed with blue poppies, primulas and yellow Inula — none of them having seen anything like it in the Himalaya. Smythe noted it in his expedition diary as "Bhyundar Valley". He returned in 1937 for an entire month with his wife, collecting seeds for the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and writing his 1938 monograph titled "The Valley of Flowers" — that gave the place its current name. The original 1938 edition is in the Edinburgh archive; reprints are available from Indian publishers. The Garhwali nomenclature before Smythe was Bhyundar — locals had always known and grazed it; "discovery" is a European narrative.
