A team of city trekkers were recently successful in climbing up till the Tilman Pass at a height of 5302 metre above the sea level in Langtang National Park, Nepal. This, the trekkers claimed, is a feat which had not been attempted successfully before.
The seven-member team returned to the city after their successful mission over 10 days. The trekkers claimed they are the first team to successfully climb up to the Pass and are also the first ones to explore the route they took.
The team had the help and guidance of 10-member local support. The trekking mission was organised by Himalayan Adventure International Treks Pvt Ltd, Kathmandu, Nepal.
A letter of confirmation was issued by the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN) this week.
The letter mentions that the team was led by Binod Karki of the Himalayan Treks. The other members of the team were Sankar Sarkar, Sanjay Biswas, Satyajit Datta, Prakeshendu Mondal and Prof Dr Saubhik Datta.
The TAAN letter also mentions that this route the team took was a newly-explored circuit. Because of the difficulty level, no Indian team achieved success in crossing the pass.
Trekkers said that just 15 days ago a team from Kolkata tried the same route but failed.
The team’s trek started from Chimti to Panch Pokhri (popular tourist destination) to Tin Kunda (another pilgrimage). Then they trekked up to Panch Pokhari (4074m). Going further, the team reached Moraine Camp above Tin Kund (4255m), which is about a 5-6 hours walk.
On the 7th day, the team was supposed to reach High Camp by taking the new route, but due to massive landslides the route on the other side was washed away. This forced the group to retract and take the old route.
On the ninth day the team managed to cross Tilman Pass, at a height of 5302m and then came down to Langshisha Khola, crossed the river but failed to reach the Hut on the other side of Langtang Khola. For this they had to wait for the next day.
This new Langtang village was built anew after the whole village was destroyed in the 2013 earthquake.
It is noteworthy that in 2022, a few members of this Kolkata team, Subhamoy Ghosh, Partha Sarathi Moulik had made an unsuccessful attempt to cross the Tilman Pass, but from the Langtang side.
This time, the members said they met with another team of six foreign nationals and 20 support staff, who too tried to climb up to the Pass but had to be rescued by chopper after one of the sherpas accompanying them died and they lost their way.
Talking about their success, Dr Prof Saubhik Datta said, “We analysed that the weather was turning bad at the pass everyday by noon. So, we decided to cross it before noon and for that we had to start early at 6 am.”