A Fortnight for Five Summits by Eight from Bengal

Dream Wanderlust | Aug 16 , 2022

A team of 8 climbers from West Bengal summited five peaks above 6000m altitude in 14 days in Ladakh. They have summited Karzok Kangri (6090m), Yalung Nong (6090m), Yalung Nong South (6090m), Peak 6070 (unnamed, 32.9687N 78.144E), and Peak 6100 (unnamed, 32.99015N 78.13629E).

They reached the Base Camp at Karzok Phu (4600m) on 20th July and they completed a series of expeditions on 3rd August without taking any support from HAF or HAP or Sherpa. They climbed all the peaks in alpine style and without taking any intermediate camps.

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"We wanted to do everything on our own from route fixing to camp establishment etc. This is for the preparation for our future mountaineering expedition with this style," says adventure athlete Avisek Tunga, one of the climbers. "We spent 14 days in our own way. All activities ranging from planning to packing, cooking to climbing were executed as per our plan. The dream which we dreamt in 2017 finally started getting realized now. And we are now confident for any technically challenged peak 6500m to climb in alpine style," he added.

Their initial plan was to climb a total of 8-9 peaks in that area (Tso Moriri). They attempted Mentok Kangri I (6270m) and III (6250m) due to bad weather. They had also planned to climb Shara Shuwa Massif, which abounded due to a shortage of time.

A brief timeline of the expedition:

20th July - Base Camp reached at Karzok Phu (4620m)

21st July - Karzok Kangri Summit (6090m) (Suman, Soumyadip, Nawaz, Avisek)

22nd July - Rest day at Base Camp

23rd July - Summit camp for Mentok (5300m) (Srijan, Chottu, Soumyadip, Suman, Avisek)

24th July - Summit attempt & back to Base Camp from 5800m due to bad weather

25th July - Rest day at Base Camp

26th July - Again summit camp for Mentok at 5400m (Suman, Avisek, Soumyadip, Pradip)

27th July - Back to Base Camp due to very bad weather

28th July - Stay at Base Camp due to very bad weather

29th July - Summit to Yalung Nong (6060m) (Suman) & Yalung Nong South (6080m)(Suman, Srijan, Nawaz, Avisek) in bad weather

30th July - Stay at Base Camp due to very bad weather

31st July - Stay at Base Camp due to very bad weather

1st August - Summit to Pt 6070 (Avisek, Nawaz)

2nd August - Summit camp for Mentok I again (Avik, Pradip, Chhottu, Soumyadip)

3rd August - Failed again due to heavy snow deposit & Pt 6100 summit by another team (Avisek, Nawaz)

4th August - Back to Leh

Team members: Avisek Tunga (31), Pradip Bar (38), Suman Sarkar (27), Sreejan Saha (28), Soumyadip Mondal (26), Chhottu Roy (29), Md Nawaz (38), and Avik Laha (25).