JOIN USTen members of a team from the Uttarkashi-based Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, led by NIM principal Col Mangal Murthi Masur, reached the 8,848-metre summit on Thursday morning.
Krishna Patil, a 19-year-old Pune girl, conquered the Mount Everest, becoming the first Maharashtrian woman mountaineer to perform the feat. “Krishna, who was part of the ten-member team ‘Asian Trekking’ commissioned in Nepal scaled the dream peak at 0700 hours on Thursday,” her mother Ranjana said, quoting a satellite communication received from her daughter.
The NIM climbing team also includes a woman, Kavita Budathoki from Uttarakhand. The others are Naib Subedar Dinesh Singh Rawat, Naib Subedar Pratap Singh Bisht, Naib Subedar Surinder Singh, Subedar Sital Singh, Inspector Love Raj Singh, Vishweshwar Prasad Semwal, Vinod Singh Gosain, Kushal Singh Rana and Dashrath Singh, the NIM official said.
This year marks the 50 years of first Indian exepedition to Everest as well as the 25th anniversary of the first Indian woman conquering the summit. The day also saw 49-year old Apa Sherpa of Nepal climbing Mount Everest for the 19th time, breaking his own record in a journey which he dedicated to increasing awareness on the impact of climate change on the Himalayas. “Apa reached the top of the Everest at 8 am on Thursday,” an official of the Nepal Tourism Board said. The Sherpa, who first conquered the summit in 1990, was leading the Eco Everest Expedition 2009. The climbing team has been collecting garbage from the route of Everest as part of a campaign to restore the mountain to its original pristine condition.