‘Didn’t want to be one of the frozen corpses hanging on Everest’

Nagpur: Just 348 metres away from sumitting the 8848m high Mt Everest, Ashok Munne was set to climb the ladder at the second step — as it is called — when he met two foreign mountaineers on their way down. “If you reach the summit, you won’t be able to come back alive,” they warned him. Peeping over one of the ledges in the 'Death Zone' (area above 8,000 metres), Munne saw frozen corpses hanging from ropes which were used by the same mountaineers.
That helped him firm up his mind. Munne (31) wanted to be a hero but not at the cost of his life. “I didn’t want to be one of those bodies hanging on Mount Everest. I knew I could have another go at it for which I had to keep myself alive. Victory should be celebrated with your loved ones,” says Munne who would have probably been the second Indian amputee to scale the peak had he completed it. He returned to Nagpur on Saturday morning after a 50-day expedition.
Ever since he lost his right leg eight years ago in a train accident, Munne, from Murti village, 75 kilometres from Nagpur, wanted to achieve this feat. But, he did not have the means. Munne got lucky this year when financial help came from well-known personalities of different fields for his Rs25 lakh expedition. He did not want to disappoint them.
During his journey to the top of the world, Munne realized that his dream peak was the final resting place of hundreds of climbers who had lost their lives in crevasses. “The Green Boot body and that of some others were mile markers or landmarks. As they shockingly remind of the risks that climbers face, the authorities at times just cut the rope and let them fall,” says Munne adding that it is impossible to bring them down. “This year, the death toll was quite high. A Japanese mountaineer, who had returned to the base camp after acclimatization practice and was staying in the tent next to us, died in his sleep. The bodies freeze and turn brittle,” he says.
Not letting this lower his morale, Munne kept climbing through the North (Tibet) route. He would often sense his speed decreasing by 25-30% as his entire body weight was on one leg. “I would deliberately be the last climber to ensure that speed of other climbers doesn’t reduce because of me,” he says. Things kept going fine till Camp 3 which is at a height of around 8,300 metres.
At about 8,400 meters, Ashok had a bad fall while climbing a vertical wall and was pulled by a Sherpa. “The ridge was steep and rocky as North side has less snow. I was losing sensation in my amputated leg and couldn’t feel it on the ground. I slipped as a rock rolled down,” he recalls.
His artificial limb, which had the latest auto-adjusting technology, failed him. “The temperature of the metal covering surrounding it dropped sharply and led to frost bite,” said Munne. But he still dared to go another 100 metres.
While Munne kept scaling heights, his pain too reached heights. After conquering first step, his Sherpa received a weather warning of heavy snowfall. It was time to take the final call. “Your speed is already slow. Even if you complete the summit, you won’t be able to come back on time. The choice is yours,” he told Munne.
From there, the summit, which Munne had only seen on Internet, was right in front of his eyes. “It was so close yet out of reach,” he says. The return of two mountaineers made him turn his back on the summit. “I just had one thought — neither am I going anywhere nor the Everest,” he says.
Munne has not even unpacked but is already making plans for the next expedition. “I will be using shoes having vacuum and no metal. I have reached almost on top, know the loopholes and thus will plan my next expedition accordingly,” he says.
While he was out there making his dream come true, his family here was going through sleepless nights. “All we would do was wait for a message from him,” says his younger sister Roshni. Some Sherpas having satellite phones had to leave after they received news of other Sherpas dying. 2G Wi-Fi connection at the base camp was the only source of communication. “If we needed oxygen while climbing, we desperately needed Wi-Fi when we came down. All the climbers would chat with their families, forgetting to eat or drink in the process,” says Munne.
Munne’s father Ramlal, who is a farmer, is proud of his son who has always been a ‘Mountain Man’. “He was just three when he climbed a nearby hill in our village. He couldn’t complete the summit but we are proud of him,” he says.
As reported by TOI earlier, Bollywood has shown interest in Munne's expedition. Film director Shivam Nair is planning to make a biopic on his inspiring story with award winning screenwriter Aseem Arora. The film team had also given him an advanced camera to record his journey.
TIMELINE
Apr 4: Leaves home
Apr 13: Reaches Lhasa
Apr 21: Everest Base Camp (5,400 metres)
Apr 27: Interim Camp (5,700 mts)
Apr 28: Advanced Base Camp (6,400 mts)
May 17: Camp 1 (7,100-7,400 mts)
May 18: Camp 2 (7,700-8,000 mts)
May 19: Camp 3 (8,300 mts) + First step (8,350 mts)
May 20: Second step (8,500 mts) and returns