The four-member team of the Siliguri-based Himalayan & Nature Adventure Foundation (HNAF) has successfully scaled two unnamed Himalayan peaks in Ladakh.
On August 9, the team made it to the summit at Point 6,150 metres and Point 6,086 metres in back-to-back ascents at 10.20am and 11.50am. This is the first time that any team has conquered the two peaks, which are unnamed so far.
Along with the HNAF climbers, another team from the Snout Adventurers Association, which is based in Calcutta, also reached the summits of both the Himalayan peaks on the same day.
The HNAF team was composed of leader Ganesh Saha, Kalyan Deb, Sudeb Roy and Kajol Dutta, who all had left Siliguri on August 1.
They reached Delhi and then went to Ladakh via Manali and set up the base camp on August 5.
“Since the start of the expedition, their greatest adversary was the relentless, high-chilling wind characteristic of Ladakh’s infamous ‘Cold Desert’. The team from HNAF, as well as the other organisation, executed a rare fully unsupported ascent, relying solely on their strength without Sherpas, guides and porters,” said Animesh Bose, the programme coordinator of HNAF.
According to him, the team led by Saha made an important strategic decision because of adverse weather and abandoned the plan to set up three higher camps.
“They instead decided to establish just two higher camps above the base camp. This high-risk compression of their acclimatisation and ascent schedule demanded peak physical and mental fortitude,” Bose added.
The climbers left the second camp around 4am on August 9. The members moved through lower sections of frozen obstacles and had to confront the summit’s true crux, a near-vertical rock face exceeding 60 degrees in steepness, composed of dangerously loose and shifting rock.
Dip Narayan Talukdar, the secretary of HNAF, who spoke to the team members after they returned to Manali, said they had to carry out technical climbing for hours, which brought them to a narrow, dented ridge, snaking towards the summit.
Around 10.20am, after an arduous climb, three members of HNAF, Ganesh, Sudeb, and Kajol Dutta, stood along with members of the other association at the summit of Point 6,150,
They hoisted the Indian national flag, HNAF’s flag and descended carefully. The trio then headed for the second peak, and around 11.50am, they could make it to the summit of the second peak, Point 6,086, along with a member of the Calcutta-based organisation.