Army team scales Mount Everest

An army mountaineering team, led by Lt Colonel Ranveer Jamwal from Jammu and Kashmir, scaled Mount Everest today.

"An Indian Army mountaineering team scaled Mount Everest today at 6:07 AM even though the weather conditions remained inclement," army spokesman in Udhampur, Colonel S D Goswami said.

He said that the expedition to scale the world's highest peak at 8,848 metres was launched after a hiatus of two years following the Nepal earthquake.

"The team led by Lt Col Jamwal, who is a reputed climber, was at the Everest base camp when a 7.9 magnitude earthquake stuck Nepal on April 25, last year", Goswami said, adding it also had one Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and personnel of five other ranks.

He said that Chief of the Army Staff General Dalbir Singh has congratulated the team for its achievement.

Twenty-two international climbers and local sherpas, who had got stuck at the Everest base camp due to an avalanche last year, were killed. However, the Indian Army expedition camp that was also in the path of the avalanche remained unharmed, he said.

"The army team had taken control of the situation after the avalanche by extending help in the rescue operation and providing shelter and ration to those in need," he said.

Son of the Havaldar, Lt Col Jamwal was commissioned in the Dogra regiment as an officer, he said.

"He has the record of having led 17 people to the Summit," Goswami said. The expedition to Mount Everest was flagged off on March 30 by Vice Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen M M Rai from New Delhi.