Jamshedpur, May 27: Hemant Gupta, an alumnus of IIT Mumbai and a Tata Steel employee, conquered Mount Everest at 6.25 am on Saturday morning as per the report received from Ground Zero.
Hemant Gupta (27 Yrs.) completed his B. Tech in Metallurgical Eng & Material Science from IIT Bombay in 2011 and joined Tata Steel as a Management Trainee in Tata Steel’s new plant in Kalinganagar Orissa.
As a MT, he had undertaken TSAF Outdoor Leadership Course in Uttarkashi Himalaya. His first tryst with adventure came through his successfully completing the one month Basic Mountaineering Course from the National Mountaineering Institute in Manali.
TSAF thereafter included him in the TSAF organized Chamser Kangri Expedition in which he reached up to 21100 ft. His love for adventure made him join the Adventure Programme Department in September 2013.
Since then he has climbed Mt Aconcagua (22860 ft) – Highest peak of America (one of the seven summits) in 2015, Mt Bhagirathi II (21310 ft) in Gangotri region, Climbed Island Peak (20400ft) in Nepal, Mt Kanamo (19600ft) in Spiti Valley of HP Himalaya.
Payo Murmu, another employee of Tata Steel who is working as a Loco Traffic Ground Control Staff in Raw Materials Division, also on this expedition with Hemant Gupta, was not able to make the final attempt towards the Summit due to inclement weather.
Significantly, Hemant Gupta (25) and Payo Murmu (50) members of TSAF reached the Everest base camp on April 10 last. The same day they trekked to Gorakshep and climbed Kala Patthar (18500ft). After resting for a day as part of the acclimatization exercise they climbed Mt Lobuche (20075 ft) on April 12. Thereafter they reached Everest Base Camp along with other Everest climbing members on April 13.
April 14 was rest day at Everest Base Camp. Thereafter they were put through the Basics of Ice Craft and Snow Craft training including anchoring ropes on ice and climbing up through the help of ‘Ascenders’ called JUMMARS. A puja was also performed at the Base Camp on 17th April, paying respect and homage to Sagarmatha as Nepalese people call it. From 18th April onwards the acclimatization programme commenced i.e. trekking from EBC to Camp 1 and beyond up to Camp 3 and returning back EBC after reaching each of the higher camps.
This process of climbing continued till May 5, 2017. After the climbers got acclimatized fully for the climb they waited for the Summit Window and planned further for their ascent to Mt. Everest accordingly. Both the mountaineers are expected to be back at Base Camp by tomorrow.
At the start of the expedition, Bachendri Pal, Chief Adventure Programm, Tata Steel had said, “Everest has always represented the epitome of challenge of human endeavor, of leadership, of knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses, of being humble in one’s approach and of testing one’s capabilities.
All the skills learnt not only help one in surmounting mountains in Himalaya but also in their real life, thereby making them better individuals benefiting them and the organization or community they work for.”