Jamshedpur couple in their 50s scales Mt Everest, felicitated

Jamshedpur: The Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) on Thursday felicitated a couple, in their mid fifties, for having succesfully scaled Mount Everest after two failed attempts in 2014 and 2015.
Inspired by Bachendri Pal the first Indian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest Pradeeep Chandra Sahoo and his wife Chetna, climbed the Earth’s highest mountain in May this year.
Two months after the feat, they decided to speak to the media and express their gratitude to their mentor Bachendri.
Addressing a press conference at TSAF, Pradeep, who graduated in metallurgy from IIT-Roorke, said their third attempt was “challenging, but successful.”
He added, “At one point, we did get panicky as the oxygen supply fell short and Chetna had to remove her mask and gloves owing to breathing problems. Thankfully, one of the Sherpas who was guiding Chetna shared his oxygen cylinder and helped her overcome the problem.”
An avalanche in 2014 and an earthquake in 2015 had hindered their expedition. “In our first attempt, we had to call off the trek owing to inclement weather.
The earthquake stalled our progress in our second attempt,” said Pradeep, a former Tata Steel executive and a qualified mountaineer.
Now a contract miner in Harare, Zimbabwe Pradeep and his homemaker wife in Kolkata, scaled Mt Kamet (7756mt) in 2006 for the first time. In 2009, he scaled Mt Panchachuli II (6904mt) and in the following year he climbed Mt Mamonstong Kengri (7516mt) but ended up scaling only 6885mt. In 2011, he scaled Mt Saser Kangri IV (7416mt) but couldn’t go beyond 6750 mt. However, Pradeep became the first Indian to reach the summit of Mt Jongsong (7464mt) the next year.