Base camp set for Mt Meru summit

The Pune-based mountaineering and adventure club Giripremi - which is currently on an ambitious expedition to Mt Meru, considered more challenging than Mt Everest - has set up the base camp for its mission.

The Garhwal-Himalayas has been home to breathtaking and magnanimous mountains. Among them is Mt. Meru, which stands tall between peaks like Shivling, Thalai Sagar, Bhrigu, and many others.

In the mountaineering fraternity, Mt. Meru is considered one of the more challenging mountains to climb - and is rated above even Mt. Everest.

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“The base camp of ‘P Cube Mt. Meru Expedition 2023’ is set as a team of climbers, sherpas and porters trekked for 4 days from Gangotri to reach one of the remotest base campsites in the world,” the Giripremi team from the site reported.

The team is being mentored by Umesh Zirpe, the founder-Director of Guardian Giripremi Institute of Mountaineering (GGIM), a state-of-the-art mountaineering institute. Zirpe is an expedition leader of several 8000-metre-plus expeditions including Mt Everest.

Only a handful of expeditions have been organized here in the last two decades hence the trekking route to the base camp is not established here like Mt. Everest or other popular peaks.

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Trekking to the base camp is also an arduous task and the constant snowfall makes the journey more challenging.

Giripremi’s climbers, sherpas and porters trekked through 2 feet of snow to reach Kirti Bamak and set up the base camp on the glacier after surveying the nearby region. The view from the base camp is magnificent yet terrifying as a few of the Himalayas' most formidable climbing peaks like Choukhamba, Kedardom, and Mt. Meru surround the base camp.

“The possibility of avalanches has increased as the snowfall continued for several days. Now the weather is clear and the climbing team has already reached and set up an advanced base camp. A few of the members have moved ahead with the route opening. If weather permits, the team is planning to climb the peak from West Face in the coming week,” the team update said.