City mountaineers missing on Kanchenjungha slopes
TT, 17 May 2019, Calcutta: Two Calcutta mountaineers who went missing on an expedition to scale Kanchenjungha (8,586m) on Wednesday are feared dead.
Biplab Baidya, 48, collapsed hours after reaching the summit and Kuntal Karar, 46, fell sick on his way to the peak.
News agency PTI quoted an official of the Nepal government as saying that Baidya and Karar have died.
"Biplab made it successfully to the summit point while Kuntal fell sick on his way and could not make it to the top," Mira Acharaya, liaison officer in Nepal's ministry of tourism team deployed at the base camp of the expedition, told PTI.
Pasang Sherpa, director of Peak Promotion, the agency that conducted the expedition, told the agency that the two had "succumbed to altitude sickness".
Baidya and Karar were part of a five-member team from Bengal, which had left on April 4 to scale the world's third highest peak (after Everest and K2).
The other three in the team are Ramesh Ray, Sheikh Sahabuddin and Rudra Prasad Halder, all of whom scaled the peak and were on their way down on Thursday.
Ray and Halder have suf- fered frostbites. Baidya, from Madurdaha off the EM Bypass, is an environmental engineer, and Karar runs a small business in Howrah.
"Baidya had reached the summit around 5.30pm on Wednesday, but while coming down he was so exhausted that he could not walk. Sherpas helped him come down. His energy level was zero. At 10.30pm, he collapsed at an altitude of 8,300m," Keshav Paudyal, chairman of Peak Promotion, told Metro.
"As for Karar, he had started from camp IV for the summit around 8.30pm on Wednesday but he had high altitude pulmonary oedema and severe frostbite. He had insisted on going up but could not go beyond 8,200m," Paudyal said.
Apart from the five from Bengal, the team included 12 climbers from Pune and four from abroad.
According to PTI, a climber from Chile named Rodrigo Vivanco went missing above camp IV on Wednesday evening. "Kanchenjungha is considered the second most difficult peak to climb, after K2 (8,611m), among the 14 peaks that are more than 8,000m high. The climb is very steep on certain stretches. Unpredictable weather adds to the challenge," said mountaineer Basanta Singha Ray, who scaled Everest in 2010 and Kanchenjungha in 2011.
Fewer climbers attempt to scale Kanchenjungha compared with Everest (8,848m), where the infrastructure support in terms of ropes is much better.
Mountaineer Satyarup Siddhanta, who has climbed all Seven Summits (the highest points of the seven continents), said: "The Kanchenjungha summit push -- going up to the summit and coming back to camp IV -- takes about 27 hours, compared with the 20-odd hours for EverestA government team will fly to Nepal on Friday. "We are in touch with the families and have assured them of all help. We tried to reach Kathmandu today but flight tickets were not available," said Surojit Roy, additional director in the directorate of youth services of the state government.
Family members of Baidya and Karar are on their way to Kathmandu.
Biplab Baidya, 48, collapsed hours after reaching the summit and Kuntal Karar, 46, fell sick on his way to the peak.
News agency PTI quoted an official of the Nepal government as saying that Baidya and Karar have died.
"Biplab made it successfully to the summit point while Kuntal fell sick on his way and could not make it to the top," Mira Acharaya, liaison officer in Nepal's ministry of tourism team deployed at the base camp of the expedition, told PTI.
Pasang Sherpa, director of Peak Promotion, the agency that conducted the expedition, told the agency that the two had "succumbed to altitude sickness".
Baidya and Karar were part of a five-member team from Bengal, which had left on April 4 to scale the world's third highest peak (after Everest and K2).
The other three in the team are Ramesh Ray, Sheikh Sahabuddin and Rudra Prasad Halder, all of whom scaled the peak and were on their way down on Thursday.
Ray and Halder have suf- fered frostbites. Baidya, from Madurdaha off the EM Bypass, is an environmental engineer, and Karar runs a small business in Howrah.
"Baidya had reached the summit around 5.30pm on Wednesday, but while coming down he was so exhausted that he could not walk. Sherpas helped him come down. His energy level was zero. At 10.30pm, he collapsed at an altitude of 8,300m," Keshav Paudyal, chairman of Peak Promotion, told Metro.
"As for Karar, he had started from camp IV for the summit around 8.30pm on Wednesday but he had high altitude pulmonary oedema and severe frostbite. He had insisted on going up but could not go beyond 8,200m," Paudyal said.
Apart from the five from Bengal, the team included 12 climbers from Pune and four from abroad.
According to PTI, a climber from Chile named Rodrigo Vivanco went missing above camp IV on Wednesday evening. "Kanchenjungha is considered the second most difficult peak to climb, after K2 (8,611m), among the 14 peaks that are more than 8,000m high. The climb is very steep on certain stretches. Unpredictable weather adds to the challenge," said mountaineer Basanta Singha Ray, who scaled Everest in 2010 and Kanchenjungha in 2011.
Fewer climbers attempt to scale Kanchenjungha compared with Everest (8,848m), where the infrastructure support in terms of ropes is much better.
Mountaineer Satyarup Siddhanta, who has climbed all Seven Summits (the highest points of the seven continents), said: "The Kanchenjungha summit push -- going up to the summit and coming back to camp IV -- takes about 27 hours, compared with the 20-odd hours for EverestA government team will fly to Nepal on Friday. "We are in touch with the families and have assured them of all help. We tried to reach Kathmandu today but flight tickets were not available," said Surojit Roy, additional director in the directorate of youth services of the state government.
Family members of Baidya and Karar are on their way to Kathmandu.
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