Ten Hills girls selected for Everest expedition

Deep Gazmer,TNN | Apr 24, 2015, DARJEELING: Ten girls from Hills have been provisionally selected to be part of an all-girls National Cadet Corps (NCC) team that will scale Mount Everest next year. 

The ten girls, students of various colleges in Darjeeling sub-division, will represent West Bengal-Sikkim NCC directorate. They will be a part of forty probable shortlisted from across the country. These girls will first have to overcome some gruelling process before they are allowed to scale Mount Everest. 

They are now preparing themselves to meet the challenges. 

"It's a great and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I never thought such a thing would happen to me. I am confident of making it to the final team to climb Mount Everest," said Srijana Rai, (20) an honorus student of Ghoom-Jorebungalow Degree College. 

Lhakpa Doma Sherpa, also a student of Ghoom-Jorebungalow Degree College, said they were trying to build stamina and mental strength. The forty probables have completed a one-month basic course mountaineering at Himalayan Mountaineering Institute. They have also undergone training in Lachan glaciers in West Sikkim. 

"They will have to scale the 6001-metre Deo-Tibba peak in Himachal Pradesh and the Satopanth peak (7075mt) in Uttarakhand, to ensure place in the final Mount Everest expedition team," said Lieutenant-Colonel Paramjit Singh, training officer of NCC Group of Darjeeling-Sikkim