In the first ever successful expedition from India to Mt Manda-1, a Giripremi Pune team scaled the 6,510-metre-tall mountain on September 18.
This was also the only second successful expedition to the mountain from the North Ridge Route since a Japanese expedition in 1984.
The team consisted of Dr. Sumeet Mandale, Vivek Shivade and Pawan Hadole, alongwith Mingam Sherpa and Nim Dorje Sherpa. The expedition was led by Anand Mali and mentored by Umesh Zirpe, a veteran mountaineer of Giripremi, a Pune-based mountaineering club.
The team reached the summit via the North ridge route, which is considered a knife edge route where climbing gets difficult due to the narrow corniced ridge at the top and steep slopes running down in the valley.
Mt Manda-1 is one of the three peaks of the Manda group located in Kedar Ganga Valley. It is one of the most challenging peaks in the Himalayas. Giripremi teams had tried climbing the mountain in 1989 and 1991 but couldn’t reach the summit.
Umesh Zirpe, the mentor of the team who was a part of two unsuccessful attempts on Mt Manda-1 in 1989 and 1991, said, “Mt Manda-1 is a challenging mountain. It challenges the mountaineer on different levels. Reaching the summit marks a historic moment in Indian mountaineering history as the first successful ascent from the difficult North Ridge.”
Source- Hindustan Times
