Heavy snowfall in Mt Everest: Darjeeling mountaineers return to base camp

Darjeeling, May 10.TT: Heavy snowfall in Mt Everest has forced a team from the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute on a mission to summit the peak to return to the base camp after having reached a height of 24,600feet.

But the Darjeeling team is not yet ready to give up and is preparing for another attempt to reach the top of the world.

Col. Neeraj Rana, the principal of the HMI and the leader of the team, has set an ambitious target of becoming the first Indian to paraglide from the “death zone” of Mt Everest to reach a base camp around 9,000ft below after scaling the peak.

“The region is experiencing heavy snowfall and four climbers have already died because of the inclement weather. We were forced to return to the base camp (17,700 feet) after we had managed to reach Camp III (24,600feet) where we had dumped some of our equipment,” Rana told The Telegraph over the phone from the base camp.

Apart from Rana, the team has five army and five civilian instructors, They have decided to stay put at the base camp for the next three to four days.

“The weather feedback we are receiving from Delhi indicates that we cannot venture out for the next three to four days. Nevertheless, our team is still in high spirits and we plan to start climbing uphill from May 14 onwards,” said Rana.According to him, 258 people are scaling Mt Everest during the current climbing season (May-April) with Nepal government issuing 38 permits for the expedition.

After reaching the base camp on April 25, the team climbed the Khambu glacier for acclimatisation and training. But they returned to the base camp on May 1 because of the snowfall. “We pitched at Camp 1 (at 20,336feet) on May 5 and reached Camp II (22,304feet) on May 7. On May 8, we reached Camp III (24,600feet) before we were forced to climb down to the base camp,” said Rana.

The Darjeeling team is planning to resume the climb on May 14 and is hopeful of reaching Camp IV on May 19.

“We have already formed two teams which will be making a final push to the top from Camp IV, which will be pitched at an altitude of 26,000feet. The first team comprises five climbers and five Sherpas. The second team will consist of four instructors and four Sherpas and will act as a backup,” said the HMI principal.

Rana will be part of the first team that will try and scale the peak. Camp IV is being set up in an area which is normally called “death zone”, one of the most challenging stretches on the route to the summit of Everest.

The climbers have to guard themselves against low atmospheric pressures — about a third of the sea level — and less oxygen. The mountaineers would need more than 12 hours to cover a distance of 1.72km in the death zone.

After reaching the top, Rana is planning to paraglide from Camp IV to the base camp in an attempt to create an Indian record.

“During our descent, I plan to paraglide for 20-23 minutes from Camp IV to the base camp (at 17,700ft). I believe this would be an Indian record. No Indian has attempted to paraglide from this altitude in the Everest,” Rana had said earlier.