Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, July 26: Stanzin Youthog and Rinchen Dolma of J&K added another feather in their caps and brought laurels to the State when they successfully scaled the 6443 meters high Mt. Menthosa in Lahaul Spiti area of Himachal Pradesh.
Stanzin and Rinchen were part of a strong 11-member All India Women Mountaineering Expedition organized by Indian Mountaineering Foundation, New Delhi, the apex body for adventure sports in the country.
Led by Tine Mina of Arunachal, the first women from North East to scale Mount Everest, the team comprised of 11 climbers from seven States including Shanti Rai of Sikkim (Deputy Leader), Indu Bala of Haryana, Gun Bala of Karnataka, Muri Linggi of Arunachal Pradesh, G R Radhika of Telangana, Anushree of Delhi, Puja Jangam of Maharashtra, Amla Rawat of Uttrakhand besides the two J&K girls Youthog and Dolma.
The team was flagged off from Delhi on June 30, 2014, stayed at Manali for two days and reached the Base Camp after spending another night enroute at Urgos, a small Buddhist village at an altitude of about 10300 ft.
The base camp was established at 4260 m, a beautiful small grassy plain, next to a glacial stream. The loads were ferried to camp-1 (4780m) the very next day and the camp was occupied by Shanti Rai and Stanzin on July 8, 2014. Even camp-2 was established the next day at 5700 m after successfully negotiating a number of hidden crevasses and ice walls and steep climb in snow and ice which was quite dangerous. However, 10 climbers except Anushree, who stayed at the base camp as she was not well, occupied camp-2 at 4 pm on July, 10.
Encouraged by the fast and successful pace of the expedition, the members were in high spirits. They left for the summit along with 5 sherpas in three groups at 1.30 am. The progress was fine but just 600 m below the summit they were stopped by a huge crevasse which they found difficult to negotiate. However, Shanti Rai, the Dy. Leader led the way to cross the dangerous crevasse which encouraged other climbers and six of them including Stanzin, Rinchen, Muri, Indu Bala, Gun Bala and Radhika also successfully faced the last challenge.
Shanti was the first to reach the top of Mt. Menthosa at 11.20 am followed by Stanzin and others.
The jubilant climbers offered prayers and hoisted the national flag and then returned to the base camp.
The team set a record in Indian mountaineering history by summiting the peak in only six days from base camp to base camp.
It may be mentioned here that Stanzin Youthog and Rinchen Dolma are ace mountaineers of J&K. While Stanzin, a constable in J&K Armed Police, has to her credit the successful ascent of difficult Shivling peak and some other formidable peaks, Rinchen, a Physical Education teacher at Leh, has scaled Gorichen (688m) in Arunachal Pradesh, Kullu Pamori (6553m) in Himachal Pradesh and Chamser Kangri (6634m) in Ladakh.
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