Jamshedpur, Oct 2: The Indian Mountaineering Foundation New Delhi (IMF is the Apex mountaineering body in India) has proposed an Expedition to four 8000m peaks in the Everest region in 2020. These would be to Mt Everest (29028 ft), Mt. Lhotse (27940 ft) 4th Highest in the World, Mt. Nuptse (25790 ft) and Mt Pumori (23494 ft). This is being done with the approval received from the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, who also provide financial support to the IMF.
For selecting members for the above expeditions, the first selection camp was held at 2 locations – Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering, Jammu and Nehru Institute of Mountaineering Uttarkashi.
Out of 100 candidates who appeared at these selections, 50 were selected for the second selection expedition to Mt. Trishul I (7120 m), a technically difficult peak to climb. It is located in Chamoli District in the State of Uttarakhand. The Trishul Mountains form the south-east corner of the ring of peaks encircling the Nanda Devi Sanctuary. They are named after the trident of Lord Shiva.
The team to Trishul started from Delhi on August 28, 2019 and reached Sutol situated at a height of 2100 m on August 29, 2019.
The 50 member team�was divided into 5 smaller teams or ropes. Hemant Gupta of Tata Steel Adventure Foundation was in rope 1 comprising 9 members.�� This team was given the responsibility of opening the route to camp -1 and camp � 2 and�thereafter making the 1st�summit attempt.� However, the weather turned foul with snowfall and high chilling winds because of which they�had to return to base camp.�� Rope 1 had set the stage for�Rope 2 and Rope 3 to climb and they reached the peak on September 15, 2019.� Thereafter�rope � 1 was given chance again to attempt the summit on September 17, 2019. As the Weather forecast was not good, taking advantage of the climbing window, rope -1 including Hemant, decided to summit directly from camp � 2. This was a good decision and Group 1 summited at 11 am on September 16, 2019.��
Hemant found the Expedition a great learning experience. Planning, organizing and leading a big team required astute leadership skills. Hemant says that the Leadership skills that he experienced would help in the Leadership Courses that TSAF runs in Garhwal Himalayas and elsewhere. These include skills on team work, tolerance for adversity and uncertainty, decision making in adverse & difficult conditions, and working under constraints.
Bachendri Pal, Mentor, TSAF says �there will be many learnings while climbing a summit. These include observing people operating under difficult conditions, working together, taking initiatives, leading from the front keeping in mind the safety of self and team and ultimately coming down from the summit safely as well�.
