PUNE Giripremi’s mountaineers, Bhushan Harshe, Dr Sumeet Mandale and Jitendra Gaware, part of a team led by Umesh Zirpe, scaled Mt. Annapurna-1, an 8,091-metre tall mountain, the world’s 10th tallest, on April 16.
This marks the Pune mountaineering club’s, eighth successful expedition where a peak 8000-mts and taller has been scaled.
Mt. Annapurna-1 comes after Mt Everest in 2012, Mt Lhotse (fourth tallest in the world) in 2013; Mt Makalu (fifth tallest in the world) in 2014; Mt Cho Oyu (sixth tallest in the world); Mt Dhaulagiri (seventh tallest in the world) in 2016; Mt Manaslu (eighth tallest in the world) in 2017; and Mt. Kanchenjunga (third tallest in the world) in 2019.
Umesh Zirpe of Giripremi said via mail that after terrible snowfall, the summit push commenced at midnight on Thursday, with the mountaineers facing gushing winds throughout the climb till dawn.
Due to a shortage of rope just 800 metres below the summit, the leading team had to stop their climb midway and returned to camp four on April 15.
“Chhang Dawa Sherpa and I, who were operating from base camp, arranged the necessary equipment from Kathmandu to camp four on war footing. This ensured the second attempt of the route. Considering the weather forecast and the slim weather window, Giripremi’s team followed the lead team for their summit push. The cloud cover gathering near the summit in the morning affected the pace of the climbers. However, after overcoming all the challenges, Giripremi’s Bhushan, Sumeet and Jitendra unfurled the Indian tricolor on the summit of Mt. Annapurna-1,” Zirpe said.
{{/usCountry}}“Chhang Dawa Sherpa and I, who were operating from base camp, arranged the necessary equipment from Kathmandu to camp four on war footing. This ensured the second attempt of the route. Considering the weather forecast and the slim weather window, Giripremi’s team followed the lead team for their summit push. The cloud cover gathering near the summit in the morning affected the pace of the climbers. However, after overcoming all the challenges, Giripremi’s Bhushan, Sumeet and Jitendra unfurled the Indian tricolor on the summit of Mt. Annapurna-1,” Zirpe said.
{{/usCountry}}Mt. Annapurna-1 is located in Nepal Himalaya’s Annapurna massif. This massif is home to several tall mountains. The Annapurna massif is 55km long, surrounded by Gandki and Marshyangadi glaciers. Long ridges, avalanche-prone areas are characteristic of the massif, which makes climbing extremely difficult. To date, 250 climbers have reached the summit of Mt. Annapurna-1 successfully.