Hostile weather conditions force mountaineers to abort expedition

Kolkata: Three mountaineers from Bengal, who were on an expedition to Mt. Ama Dablam—one of the most challenging peaks in the Himalayas—had to retreat

due to hostile weather conditions.

Battling all odds during the pandemic, the trio—Satyarup Siddhanta, Malay Mukherjee and Debasish Biswas ventured for the expedition on November 2. The peak rises 6,856 meters in elevation.

Siddhanta had to be rescued by a helicopter after his limbs turned numb with cold. He is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Nepal.

"It was difficult to climb down, taking the treacherous route, with strength of fingers getting reduced to 1/5th….," Siddhanta wrote on social media. Faced with rough weather, Siddhanta tried to keep himself steady by putting on the oxygen mask.

"Just when I was about to get down the last phase to reach camp 2, I was attempting a diagonal abseiling, a skill, I admit, I haven't acquired fully yet…,"the social media post read.

In doing so, he injured his shoulder. Siddhanta had described the ordeal on social media while undergoing treatment at the hospital on Sunday night.

Two of his fellow climbers Mukherjee and Biswas also failed to scale the mountain. They managed to return to the base camp on Monday.

Till the time of filling of this report, they were on the way to Nepal. The trio is doing fine.

It was the first time when any mountaineer from Bengal had ventured for scaling the challenging and beautiful Ama Dablam peak.