Ace mountaineer Bachendri Pal (centre) with a team of Tata Steel Adventure Foundation at an earlier expedition in the Himalayan range.Telegraph picture

Jamshedpur, Aug. 4: They have climbed the corporate ladder and now it’s time to take on greater heights. Come September, corporate executives with backpacks will head off to the Himalayas.

This year, representatives from 15 companies — a record number — will take part in Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) winter outdoor leadership course in the Garhwal Himalayas.

A unique initiative of TSAF, the winter outdoor leadership course is designed as a corporate retreat-cum-adventure package, with top-notch instructors and ace mountaineer Bachendri Pal showing executives the ropes.

The teams will set off from the TSAF base camp in village Uttraon, near Uttarkashi and trek to the 13,500ft-high Surya Top.

As numbers are higher, TSAF authorities have decided to start the course ahead of schedule. “Instead of September-end, the course will start on September 1 and end on December 7 as we don’t want any participant to face harsh Himalayan winter. Each group is allocated around 10 days. With two fresh entrants, Calcutta-based Tata Steel Processing Distribution Ltd and Nagpur-based Ispat Industries, our calendar is absolutely chock-a-block,” said P.P. Kapadia, TSAF secretary, adding that they had to say no to many companies and educational institutions who came after the lucky 15.

A team of engineers from LG will be the first group to head off to the mountains. Other teams include employees of Tata Steel, Tata Power, Jusco and North Delhi Power Limited, among others.

Kapadia also spoke on innovations of this winter course based on inputs from the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), a United States-based non-profit outdoor school dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoor skills, safety and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions. In a tie-up between TSAF and NOLS, nine TSAF members went for a 10-day training camp run by NOLS instructors Iris Saxer and Shantanu Pandit. “We’ll let participants climb mountains on their own and take their own decisions — lessons we learnt from NOLS instructors,” Kapadia said.