For mountaineer Shuvam Chatterjee from Hindmotor, Uttarpara, it was a life-and-death moment high up in the Himalayas.
The 29-year-old climber was hung suspended on a near-vertical ice wall, his crampons loosely gripping the frozen slope. Why? Because the climber ahead of him froze in exhaustion.
“She was completely fatigued and couldn’t negotiate the last section,” said Chatterjee.
“I was stuck right behind her on an almost 90-degree steep wall for at least 40 minutes — simply hanging on my cuff muscles (around the joints of the shoulders). Being stuck like that at an altitude above 7,000 metres drains out your energy fast.”
This ultimate moment came during Chatterjee’s climb to the top of Mount Manaslu (8,163 metres) — the world’s eighth-highest hump and Everest’s next-door neighbour
in Nepal.
Chatterjee summited Manaslu at 6.18am on September 28, coinciding with Mahashasthi morning.
A member of Climbers’ Circle, Calcutta, one of the oldest mountaineering clubs of the city, he unfurled the national Tricolour and his club’s flag at the summit.
In this expedition, a 17-member team set out for the summit from Kathmandu. Twelve successfully scaled Manaslu, Chatterjee being the only climber from India.
The team rested at base camp on September 23 and 24 before beginning their ascent to Camp 1 on September 25.
The next day saw a particularly long and tough climb from Camps 1 to 3, testing the climbers’ endurance and stamina. On September 27, the climbers moved from Camps 3 to 4 through steep, icy slopes. They took only brief halts before launching their final summit push that night.
By dawn on September 28, Chatterjee and his teammates stood atop Mount Manaslu, watching the first rays of the sun spill across the Himalayas, turning the ice a radiant gold.
According to Chatterjee, the expedition was marked by punishing ascents, biting cold and countless dangers. He talked about the stretch from Camps 3 to 4 — the hardest to negotiate. The stretch consisted of nearly 10 hours of non-stop climbing across steep snow slopes, slippery ice walls and endless crevasses. “We could see avalanches every half an hour, just a few hundred metres away,” said Chatterjee. “The whole mountain was alive with movement, breathing danger.”
The ordeal didn’t end even after the team reached Camp 3. “After pitching our tents, we were chatting casually when suddenly we heard a crashing sound,” he recalled. “A massive dry avalanche just swept past our tents. It was just a matter of luck that it didn’t hit us directly.” Chatterjee did not forget to freeze the moment through videography.
Climbing Manaslu, well-known among mountaineers for its unpredictable weather and treacherous glacier crossings, put the endurance and teamwork of a group to the test. Yet, for Chatterjee, the challenge was a culmination of years of preparation and passion.
Trekking since 2012, he completed his Basic Mountaineering Course from the National Institute of Mountaineering and Adventure Sports in 2024 and Advanced Course from the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in 2025, gradually making his credentials through a series of global climbs.
Over the past few years, Chatterjee has summited Kilimanjaro in Africa, Elbrus in Russia, Giluwe and Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea, Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia, Ojos del Salado in South America and Pico de Orizaba in North America, ticking off both the seven volcanoes and continental summits.
“I’ve got to know that Shuvam is eyeing Everest as his next goal, and I must say Manaslu was the perfect preparation for that. It’s an eight-thousander that truly tests a climber’s endurance and technical skill. I have nothing but praise for him,” said veteran mountaineer Basanta Singha Roy.
Despite his growing list of achievements, Chatterjee felt that Manaslu would always hold a special place in his heart. “It wasn’t just another summit,” he said. “It was about facing fear, surviving the mountain’s fury, and still finding the strength to look up at the stars that night — knowing you’ve lived through something very few ever do.”