Adventure of Life beckons and that is the greatest Adventure of all.
Indian Army men had scaled Mount Everest twice in 2001 and 2003 .These
successes inspired the Indian Army Adventure Wing Directorate to plan an
Army Women Everest Expedition. To undertake this task, Army women
volunteers were asked to enlist, and out of the volunteers selected, 37
were put through Basic and 29 through Advance mountaineering course at
NIM, Uttarkashi. Thereafter a team was selected for pre-Everest training and
Expedition to Mount Kamet(7756m) during Aug to Oct 2004. Subsequently 18
women climbers were shortlisted and put through a grueling training
schedule of one month at Siachen Glacier which included ice and snow craft
training and endurance marches in adverse weather conditions with
temperatures ranging between -30c to -45c.Finally only 10 climbers were
shortlisted from the 18 to join the expedition.The team included six women
Officers from the Army, two women trainees from SFF ,two girl cadets from
NCC with 18 experienced Army climbers. The expedition was flagged off by
no less than Gen.J.J.Singh, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC, Chief Of The Army Staff on
18 March 2005 at New Delhi.
The elite women team reached Lhasa (3680 m) on 29 March 05. After
acclimatization for 2 days at Lhasa(3680m), the team started its journey
to Base Camp on 1st April 2005.
On
its way to the top the team established three camps ,camp 1 on the narrow
edge of North col , camp 2 at a height of 7800m and camp 3 at a height of
8000m .From camp 3 the route to North east ridge is very steep, wind swept
and to reach the ridge , one has to negotiate 400m of steep slope of rock
and ice .From camp 3 a climber takes 9 to 10 hours to reach the summit and
the descent from the summit to North to North Col takes 7 to 8 hours.
So
braving all the odds the team forged ahead and scaled the summit between 6
30am to 9 30am on 2nd April 2005.and became the first ever women Army team
in the world to scale the mighty Mt. Everest. The four brave hearts whose
name entered the annals of history were Captain Sipra Majumdar, Captain
Ashwini Pawar, Trainee Dechen Lhamo and Cadet Tshering Ledel.
Our heartiest congratulations to all the team members and we are so
very proud of you.