Pranay Bordoloi talks to reporters at the Press Club in Guwahati on Thursday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, March 23: The odds — age, funds, climate and hazards — are stacked heavily against him, but the veteran mountaineer’s ambition to hoist a gamosa atop the world’s highest peak — Mount Everest — is as high as the summit itself.

Height, and of course, a place in Assam’s history beckons adventure sportsman Pranay Bordoloi, in his late forties, when he set outs on an expedition — billed as the International Mount Everest Expedition 2012 — on April 3. He will be the first from Assam to be a part of a 12-member mission to the 29,028-foot mountain.

“This mission is being undertaken to live the dream of Assam’s first woman mountaineer, Nasim Akhtar, who passed away in November last year. Besides, personally, and as a member of the Northeast Adventure Foundation, I am thrilled to be a part of the international expedition being led by South Korea’s Wang Fu So. I hope I return only after hoisting a gamosa on the summit,” Bordoloi told The Telegraph.

Kathmandu will be his first destination. “I will be in Kathmandu for three days during the first week of April. There, I get to meet other members who are from America, Europe and Asia. Besides, I would also have to procure gear and accessories in the Nepal capital. The gear will cost me at least Rs 2.5 lakh,” he said.

“Thereafter, we go to Lukla by air and from there to the base camps. But before the climb, tentatively slated for May 9-10, we would spend at least three weeks acclimatising. I expect to be back in Guwahati by the first week of June,” he added.

The foundation has been planning such missions since 2010, but these could not materialise for paucity of funds.

“We had to defer this year’s expedition to 2013 as the DoNER ministry did not give the go-ahead to the budget for the mission. Our founder secretary, Nasim Akhtar, had initiated the Northeast Everest Expedition but paucity of funds meant that the project remained a non-starter. But now that Pranay has been selected, Nasim’s dream has been fulfilled,” president of the foundation Alaka Desai Sarma said.

The budget for Bordoloi is a whopping Rs 14.58 lakh.

“I had approached the chief minister for help but the funds never came from the government’s end. I have arranged about Rs 6.5 lakh from my savings and will get another Rs 2 lakh as a loan. Friends and well-wishers have chipped in. But there is a deficit and I will appreciate sponsorship from the corporate sector as well,” he said.

“The expedition budget also includes a royalty of Rs 5 lakh to be paid to the Nepal government,” he added.

Age, too, is a limitation for Bordoloi. “The ideal age for such a challenge is between 21 to 30 years. I am on the wrong side of 40. But I have worked hard on my mental and physical fitness,” Bordoloi said.

A mother of two, Anshu Jamsenpa Wange, from Arunachal Pradesh, had scaled Everest twice in a span of 10 days last year.

“I hope I can emulate her feat. This mission would open doors for young mountaineers from the region,” the Guwahati-based climber said.