Victim had 10 yrs of experience

Shailendra Kumar Bisht was considered one of the best in the business. He had over ten years of mountaineering and rappelling experience as an instructor at Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, and had scaled several difficult peaks in India. Shashank Shekhar reports.

Shailendra Kumar Bisht was considered one of the best in the business. He had over ten years of mountaineering and rappelling experience as an instructor at Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, and had scaled several difficult peaks in India.

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"He did rappelling on glass walls so perfectly that it is difficult to believe the way he died. Even during the launch he did it flawlessly," said Manish Singhal, CEO, Tourism Worx, the company which had hired Bisht.

So what went wrong? "After the first show he folded the rope so that it should not create hindrance for people. During the lunch time he, along with his fellow performer, decided to come down using ropes but he failed to notice that the ropes were tied at the top and were short of ground by 30-40 feet," Singhal said.

Shailendra had done a course in method of instruction (MOI), which meant he was qualified to teach aspiring mountaineers.

Adventure sports professionals say there are no second chances for exponents of their art. "The incident is tragic but we don't get a second chance. Each time we perform a stunt we have to be 100 per cent sure. There is no margin for error. Many professionals ignore safety gears and use old/worn out equipment which leads to tragedy," said Shubham Basu, an adventure sports professional.