A four-member team from the Himalayan Nature & Adventure Foundation (HNAF), a Siliguri-based organisation that has been working for decades to promote adventure sports and conservation of nature and wildlife, headed for Ladakh on Thursday to scale two unnamed and unclimbed peaks in the Himalayas.
The team, led by Ganesh Saha and comprising Kalyan Deb, Sudeb Roy and Kajal Kumar Dutta, will attempt to make it to the summits of Pt. (point) 6,205 metres and Pt. 6,150 metres, which are located in the rugged terrains of Ladakh.
“They will reach Ladakh via New Delhi and Manali on August 5. Then, the climbers will move forward and set up the base camps and two advanced camps. There is a plan to make attempts to the summit from August 10 to 12,” said Animesh Bose, the programme coordinator of HNAF.
While Deb is in his late fifties, the other three are in their mid-thirties. Deb is from Barrackpore, while Sudeb and Kajal are from Malbazar in Jalpaiguri. Saha, the team leader, is from Siliguri.
According to Bose, this is the 10th mountain expedition organised by HNAF. The first expedition was organised in 1993, when members of the organisation had scaled Mt Jogin 1 and Mt Jogin 3, which are located in the Garhwal Himalayas.
Dip Narayan Talukdar, the secretary of HNAF, said the Indian Mountain Federation had approved the latest expedition. A sum of around ₹3.5 lakh will be spent on the expedition.
“All four of them are technically trained and have made it to the summits of several Himalayan peaks. We are confident that they will scale both peaks. This is a new adventure as no one has climbed these peaks so far,” said Talukdar.
On Wednesday, Gautam Deb, the mayor of Siliguri, along with his deputy Ranjan Sarkar and Dilip Dugar, chairman of the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority, ceremonially flagged off the expedition.
At an event organised in Baghajatin Park of the city, they handed over the Indian national flag to the team members, along with HNAF’s flag.
“HNAF has been consistently working in the field of adventure sports and conservation of nature. We wish the team all success. The expedition will encourage youths across north Bengal to join adventure sports,” said the mayor.