After an enigmatic postponement of eight days, the mortal remains of Dipankar Ghosh (53), an accomplished Indian mountaineer and Narayan Singh, one of the 18-member Indian Army Expedition team, have finally been rescued and taken down to Camp-4 on Makalu, as per the latest updated received, fresh from Pasang Sherpa, to us today in the morning. Dipankar, who conquered several eight-thousanders in Nepal in the past, had reportedly gone missing above Camp-4 (above 8200m) on 16th May in the afternoon while descending from Makalu(8481m) summit. The mountaineering fraternity, could not be in oblivion to the fact of his unexpected demise once he lost contact with the Base Camp after 7pm on the same day.
We have reported earlier how due to unreceptive weather issues, the search team was hardly able to pass on any information from higher up the mountain to the Base Camp. “The rescue team is most likely to be back at the Base Camp tonight or tomorrow.”, as Pasang Sherpa expressed while talking to Dream Wanderlust in an exclusive discussion a while ago. Meanwhile, at least eight climbers including Nirmal Purja have reportedly reached the summit of Makalu this morning at around 6am. After this summit, Nirmal Purja climbed his sixth summit in last one month.
On 21st May, the rescue team, led by Chhang Dawa Sherpa, consisting of 14 highly-abled Sherpas, had set out for this search-and-rescue operation, including Mingma David Sherpa (World Record holder for highest long-line rescue) and Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, one of the directors of Seven Summit Treks. After their mysterious disappearance high above the mountain on 16th May, it took 5 days to start the rescue operation by their climbing agency once the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Government of India, took the prerogative to initiate the talks with Indian Embassy in Nepal, followed by the command to the esteemed agencies and their coveted rescue team.
Furthermore, another Indian climber Piyali Basak, who was climbing Everest, decided to descend from the balcony of Everest, reportedly due to Mountain Sickness. Her agency confirmed us that she will be airlifted from Camp-2 of Everest today at any moment now and proceed straightway to Kathmandu.
Apart from these miseries, the Himalayan eight-thousanders have been witnessing a thunderous rise in death toll, which stands at 15 at this moment. This has raised a serious concern in the mountaineering fraternity. Irish climber Seamus Sean Lawless had also gone missing since 16th May on Everest while descending from the summit nearby Camp-4. A team of nine climbers, led by his expedition leader Irish mountaineer Noel Richard Hanna, has been formed to begin a search and recovery operation of Seamus. They were at South Col yesterday to search for the deceased climber.
American mountaineer Donald Lynn Cash (55) died on Everest the day before yesterday. Unfortunately, due to the traffic jam on Everest yesterday, with the death of Kalpana Dash from Odisha, Nihal Bagwan and Anjali Kurkarni from Maharastra, India lost 8 mountaineers this spring. The remains of Ravi Thakar from Everest, alongside Kuntal Karar and Biplab Baidya from Kanchenjunga, have already been taken down from the mountains.
Dipankar Ghosh on Kangchenjungha [Courtesy: dipankarghosh.info]
