Historic! Beyond words – Pune’s Giripremi Mountaineers Climb Mt. Meru South from its West face to be the first in the world to do so. Take a look at the glimpses here

On September 2, at around 8 am, Ganesh More, Vivek Shivade, Varun Bhagwat, Mingma Sherpa, Vinod Gusain, Bihari Rana, Ajit Rawat, Dawa Sherpa, and Furtensing Sherpa climbed 6660-meter-tall Mt. Meru located in Garhwal Himalaya of Uttarakhand known as one of the most challenging mountains to climb. Lakpa Sherpa supported the expedition from Camp 1 (5500 meters). 

This is the first-ever successful climb to Mt. Meru from its most difficult West face ever in the world. The expedition was led by Giripremi veteran leader – Umesh Zirpe 

Uttarkashi’s Nehru Institute of Mountaineering has supported the expedition. Col. Anshuman Bhadauria, Principal, NIM and Dr. Major Deval Vajpayee, Vice Principal, NIM extended their support to the expedition. 

Parth Chaudhari of P Cube Enterprises, Parimal and Pramod Chaudhari of Praj Industries, World Oilfield Machines (WOM), and Namah Ropes played an important and pivotal part in making this expedition successful.

This was the second attempt at Mt. Meru by Giripremi. In May this year, Giripremi team made a stellar attempt at Mt. Meru, however, due to the unfavorable weather conditions, the team had to return from just 400 meters of the summit. It was a good learning experience that helped the team this time to mitigate the challenges.

From 28th August, the team was stationed at the base camp (4800 Meters) located at Kirti Bamak glacier. Due to extreme and unusual rainfall in the Himalayas, the team was skeptical regarding the favorable weather conditions, Fortunately, weather god favored and the team could concentrate on climbing and battling the mighty challenges possessed by Mt. Meru. After acclimatization climbs, the team set for the summit bid on Sept 1 evening from Camp 1 (5500 meters). The route to the summit is almost 90 degrees with a combination of rocks, and hard ice. The team climbed 10 hours relentlessly showing exemplary skills of rock and ice climbing to reach the top of Mt. Meru. at 7:30 AM on 2nd Set 2023, Giripremi team reached to the summit and unfurled India’s tricolor on top. The successful summit marks a historic feat in the world’s mountaineering. 

Ganesh More (Mt. Everest and Mt. Cho Oyu Summitter), Vivek Shivade (Mt. Kanchenjunga, Mt. Ama Dablam, and Mt. Manda Summitter), Varun Bhagwat (young mountaineer and summitter of Mt. Bhrigu Parvat) along with Mingma Sherpa, an ace mountaineer who have climbed eight thousander mountains multiple times and Vinod Gusain, the senior instructor at Nehru Institute of Mountaineering were part of the climbing team. 

The expedition preparations were going on for more than 18 months. Along with summitters, Krishna Dhokale, Pawan Hadole, Ashish Mane, Pawan Hadole, Wing Cdr Devidutta Panda, and Akhil Katkar put their hard efforts in pulling off one of the toughest mountaineering expeditions. 

Mountaineering Sport in India is emerging at a rapid rate and Giripremi, a leading mountaineering club in India is playing a crucial role in making India proud and it sets up shining examples for the future mountaineers of India.

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