Arunchal lad to scale Mount Everest

FROM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Itanagar, Jul 7 (PTI) He sold his four prized mithuns to fund his expedition to climb Mera peak — the highest among 36 group-B peaks, at a height of 6654 metre in Nepal and is now considering a solo expedition to Mount Everest. [Inset: Mt. Everest. Photo Source: Wikipedia.org]

Though he could get sponsorship from clubs if he wanted dimunitive 24-year-old Tapi Mra from Lemiking in Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh on the Sino-India preferred to bear the expenditure on his own.

Last year, he had scaled the 6160 metere Island Peak, in the same area almost barefoot, but because of his ignorance of the rules he could not secure a certificate for the feat.

With the successful ascent of Mera Peak, Mra is planning a solo assault on the 8848 metre Mount Everest in April through the treacherous China route. The state government has sanctioned Rs. 10.75 lakh to him which will barely cover his expenditure as he has no source of income.

Climbing from Nepal side would have been much easier but Mra was informed that the Nepal Mountaineering Association charged 25,000 US dollar (over Rs 11 lakh) on royalty alone, which would be sufficient to meet all expenditure on the China route.

Mra said it was off season when he climbed the Mera Peak and he ascended it ignoring the advice of sherpas, the mountain guides. He was caugt in the midst of a severe storm and realised that the sherpas
were right, he said. He, however, decided to press on from the high camp just a few hundred
metre below the peak as he had staked all his money on the expedition.

While two porters he hired stayed back at the high camp, sherpa Ange Dindi after initial hesitation agreed to accompany him because of his pleadings. It was like moving blindfolded to reach the summit which they circled for hours before reaching the south summit instead of the central one, Mra said.

Such was his excitement at his feat that he took off his shirt and tossed it in the air just just as Sourav Ganguli did at Lords. Was his action inspired by Sourav? No, came the reply from the soft spoken
Arunachaleee. “It was spontaneous.” He placed the national tricolour and another flag with the name of Arunachal on it on the peak.

Mra said he was inspired to take up mountaineering when he learnt on radio about the feat of Everester Bachendri Pal when he was a school student. He told elders that he would climb the snow-capped 5000 meter Dadi Kri nearby, which he did two to three times along with other climbers and and army personnel.

He said that traditional climbers had the ability to withstand the severe cold without snow gloves and shoes by lighting fires to warm themselves. He also climbed the fascinating Neru and Tapasri mountains on the
Sino-India border after taking up an advanced course at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute at Darjeeling. PTI PGD PC PS PS 07071102 K 07071108 DEL