Nafta Climbing Expedition

About Expedition

Giripremi organized India’s largest civilian expedition to the country’s highest mountain. Giripremi’s ambitious ‘Mt. Kangchenjunga Eco Expedition 2019’ was flagged off on Sunday, 25th March 2019  at PYC Hindu Gymkhana, Pune.  The expedition team left on March 31 for the expedition which was scheduled in April- May 2019.  The ten men team was to climb World’s third highest peak.  Out of these 10, six were Everest summitters, and remaining mountaineers had enough experience of high-altitude peak climbing including 6000, 7000 and 8000 meters peaks. The team had trained hard for the expedition, and all the climbers were ready to summit the peak by mid May.

Kangchenjunga Eco Expedition 2019 was Giripremi’s seventh 8000er meters peaks expedition in the last seven years. Giripremi’s team had scaled six of the top 14 mountains in the world including Mt. Everest. Giripremi received an enormous response for Kangchenjunga Eco Expedition 2019 from supporters, well-wishers as well as corporate sector. 

Under the excellent leadership of Mt. Umesh Zirpe, the most successful leader from Giripremi, On 15th May 2019, the expedition saw the historic success as the entire team of 10 mountaineers was able to reach to the top of Mt. Kangchenjunga and unfurl the Indian Tricolor there. 

The Eco Project under this expedition was also successful in collecting the research samples and studying the environment around Mt. Kangchenjunga. This Eco Project was led by Dr. Avinash Kandekar, Senior Professor at Savitribai Phule Pune University and senior mountaineer of Giripremi . 

  • Third highest mountain in the world.
  • One of the most technically difficult mountains, which could not see any summits in several climbing seasons. 
  • Only about 300 climbers were successful to react the summit in past 50 years.
  • For Indians, Kangchenjunga is the Pride mountain or Crown mountain of the country.
  • First Indian expedition was successful in 1977 by Indian Army
  • Hardly any civilian expeditions were planned on Kangchenjunga. 

Leader – Umesh Zirpe

 

Team Members – Bhushan Harshe, Ashish Mane,Rupesh Khopade, Anand Mali, Prasad Joshi, Krishna Dhokle, Dr. Sumit Mandale, Vivek Shivade, Jitendra Gaware, Kiran Salastekar.  

Expedition Status

Completed

Successful / Unsuccessful

Successful

Altitude Reached

8586 m

Date of Summit

15 May 2019

Number of Summiters

10

Number of Days

56 Days

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