Jammu officer leads Army team to Mt Everest

Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 19

Led by Lt Col Ranveer Singh Jamwal, a native of Jammu, the Army’s mountaineering team scaled the Mount Everest at 6.07 am today despite inclement weather conditions after a hiatus of two years following the devastating Nepal earthquake last year.

“An Indian Army mountaineering team, led by an officer, Lt Col Ranveer Singh Jamwal, who belongs to Jammu and Kashmir, on Thursday scaled the Mount Everest,” said Defence spokesperson Col SD Goswami.

The team included one officer, one Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and five other ranks.

Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag has congratulated the team.

The team, led by Lt Col Jamwal, an avid climber, was at the Everest base camp last year when a 7.9-magnitude earthquake stuck Nepal on April 25, 2015.

On March 29 this year the Army’s Everest Massif Expedition to scale the Mount Everest and Mount Lhotse, was flagged off by Lt Gen MMS Rai, the Vice-Chief of the Army Staff at a ceremony held at the South Block in New Delhi.

Lt Col Jamwal was also the Army’s team leader during last year’s Everest expedition when a strong 7.9-magnitude quake had struck Nepal and triggered avalanches in the Himalayan range.

They were at the base camp when the quake had struck. Col Jamwal and other team members had survived the massive quake and joined the rescue operations saving other climbers.

The avalanche had struck the Everest Base Camp from the Mount Pumori destroying camps of many expedition teams, killing 22 international climbers and local Sherpas and injuring more than 70, some of whom were critical due to severe head injuries.