Bhubaneswar, Dec. 25: Youngsters who like to live life on the edge and enjoy a trek are living their dream. These youths, who harbour dreams of trekking on the Himalayan peaks, finished the first round of their camp for the state government’s first Himalayan expedition, Himsikhar, last week.
More than 40 mountaineers were trained in climbing high altitudes at Sandakphu in Darjeeling. Two more camps would be hosted shortly.
The expedition was launched jointly by the state government and the east zone chapter of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF).
“We received 125 applications from all over the state for the expedition but we had to choose only 50. The final team would be of only 15, with one third of them being girls,” said east zone co-ordinator from IMF Susant Das. The applications came from 18 districts and the select few belong to Malkangiri, Sundargarh, Ganjam, Mayurbhanj and Phulbani.
“The selected youths have a background in sports or experience in trekking, climbing or adventure sports or camps or NCC. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm, especially from youths from the interior districts who have better stamina than youngsters from the cities since they live in natural environment and many also belong to tribal communities and are used to physical activity as part of their lifestyle,” said Das.
The Sandakphu camp ended on December 18 at Rimbik, a village in Bengal’s Darjeeling district. Of 50 participants, the final team consisting of 41 participants — 27 boys and 14 girls — after thorough medical check-up, physical and psychological fitness test left for Sandakphu with 14 support staff members, including instructors, officials and porters.
The trek started from Maneybhanjan to the first camp at Tumling and then proceeded to camp at Kala Pokhri, situated at 3,186m, where the team camped for a day. The next camp was at Sandakhphu, situated at 3,636m above sea level, where the temperature goes down to around –12°C at night and hovers around 0°C-2°C during the day.
“The view of the Kanchenjunga and other peaks such as Pandim, Makalu, Everest and Lhotse from Sandakphu have renewed my aspirations to become a mountaineer,” said Lipsa Sethi, a 19-year-old trekker from Bargarh.
It is the first time in the history of the state’s adventure sports where 41 participants have completed the Sandakphu trek at a time.
The second camp will be hosted from January 9 to 13 at Panchalingeswar in Balasore, where the team will be trained in rock climbing and rappelling or descending with control from mountains.
The last camp will be hosted at the end of February in Sikkim, where candidates will learn snow-crafting on frozen mountain paths. All the while, candidates would be assessed and only the best 15 will make it to the final expedition.
