Excelsior Sports Correspondent
KISHTWAR, July 20: The West Bengal Sonarpur Aarohi Club comprising a team of nine skilled and eminent mountaineers has successfully scaled Mountain Brammah-1 on July 18. This challenging peak, known for its technical difficulty, has been a long-standing aspiration in the mountaineering community since it was first climbed by British mountaineer Chris Bonnington about 50 years ago.
This remarkable achievement marks the first Indian team to conquer the summit, making history in the world of mountaineering. The statement said after meticulous planning and cooperation from the district administration Kishtwar and different Government agencies and Army, the expedition commenced on July 16. However, adverse weather conditions, including whiteout and heavy snowfall, forced the team to abandon their initial summit attempt.
The statement said a Sherpa member fell approximately 70 meters but, fortunately, survived with bruises, cuts, shock, and snow blindness while searching for the summit route. The team made a courageous decision to wait for his recovery and launch another attempt within 30 hours.
The statement said on the midnight of July 17, the team set out once again, and at approximately 10:30 am on July 18, they achieved their goal, successfully scaling Mountain Brammah-1. The team recorded the height as 6426 meters, which differed slightly from the topo map’s mentioned elevation of 6416 meters, based on four devices’ readings.
The team of nine climbing members and five Sherpas accomplished the momentous summit, while three members coordinated the activities from the base camp. Upon safely returning to the Base Camp on July 19, the expedition team had expressed their gratitude to the district administration Kishtwar and all the agencies for supporting the expedition.
However, the team faces a setback as their initial plan to climb Brammah’s had to be called off due to challenges in retrieving climbing equipment, leading to significant financial losses that may take time to recover without adequate sponsorship., the statement said.
The West Bengal Sonarpur Aarohi Club believed that this successful summit of Mt Brammah-1 will open up new avenues for future adventure tourism in the Kishtwar Himalayas. The route they follow is also a new route discovery.
The members who scaled Mountain Brammah-1 are Rudra Prasad Halder, Partha Sarathi Layak, Satyarup Siddhanta, Rudra Prasad Chakraborty, Dr. Uddipan Halder, Debasish Majumder, Avik Mondal, Tuhin Bhattacharyya and Naitik Naskar. The sherpa members are Phursemba Sherpa, Nurbu Sherpa, Janga Bahadur Rai, Pass Dukya Sherpa, Dawa Nurbu Sherpa and injured Sherpa Member Tenzing Sherpa.
Those coordinating the expedition team from base camp are Chayan Chatterjee, Joydeep Halder, Asim Dutta and cook Baijnath Thakur.
Deputy Commissioner, Dr. Devansh Yadav appreciated the team for successfully completed the expedition and expressed enthusiasm about boosting the tourist potential and tourism in Kishtwar.
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