Cop & 6 others from state to scale 3 virgin peaks in Ladakh

kolkata: Ujjal Ray, who had made the Kolkata Police proud by undertaking several successful mountain expeditions, including the Mount Everest in 2013, is leading a seven-member team for climbing three unnamed virgin peaks of more than 6000 metres height, close to Pologonka La Pass at Ladakh.

Ray, who is presently serving as Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Central division, and his team are expected to start the climb on August 24.

"This is for the first time when any mountaineer is attempting to scale the three unnamed virgin peaks. We will be climbing past the Tsokar Lake that has presently dried up. We will also witness the condition of the glaciers there and try to find out the reason behind drying of the lake. We have set a target of scaling three peaks," Ray said.

He added that the extreme cold with temperature as low as minus 20 degree Celsius and the chilling wind will be a major challenge for the team to overcome.

The seven-member team also includes Nandalal Sarkar, who is posted in Special Branch (Security) of Kolkata Police . The expedition is taking place under the banner of Snout Adventurers Association, Kolkata, under which Ray had scaled a virgin peak of 6330m exploring a cocooned part of Ladakh in July 2018. The team that had left Kolkata on August, 19 is presently at Manali.

Interestingly, the team will not take any Sherpa or guide along with them.

Ray, who has been an integral part of the Kolkata police force since 1987, is an expert mountaineer and has climbed as many as 15 peaks. Apart from scaling the world's highest mountain peak, Ray's claim to fame lies in his scaling of unnamed virgin peaks. Apart from his police job, Roy has been into mountaineering since 1999.

He had been a part of a four member government team that made an expedition to the Mt. Everest in 2017 in search of bodies of two mountaineers Paresh Nath and Goutam Ghosh, who went missing while undertaking the Everest expedition in 2016.