[The man who has scaled the highest mountains in the world, beaten death, battled financial crisis and emerged with his head held high. One of the foremost mountaineers in country, he would be a dream instructor to get. In this delightful interview, he made all the technical terms so easy that I did not dare to search Wikipedia for any of the technical terms! So here is the master’s journey in his own words…]
Q. How did you get introduced to mountaineering?
I joined a rock climbing course offered by the Mountaineers’ Association of Krishnanagar in 1987. I was around 26 years old and have been working for about three years. I enjoyed the camp life and the rock climbing itself in the five day course in Susunia . Then I started trekking more seriously in Jayanti and Bauxadooar followed by a Basic Mountaineering course from Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttar Kashi. And since I got an A grade, I was selected for the Advanced training. That’s how it all started.
Q. Why did you choose mountaineering as a hobby and not as a profession?
I already have a profession (banker) and was working when I started mountaineering. So I liked it as a hobby. Moreover, our country lacks the infrastructure required to take up mountaineering as a profession. Nowadays it is being clubbed with adventure sports and tourist attractions and people are taking it up as a profession but back then the situation was different.
Q. Tell us the story behind your Everest Expedition.
In order to lead or be part of an expedition, one needs to fulfill certain conditions. One should have adequate training and prior experience. Everest lies both in Nepal as well as Tibet, modern day China. If we climb it from the Tibetan side, it is called the North Col and climbing the side that lies in Nepal is known as South Col climb. There are many other routes but these are the principal ones. From West Bengal, four Everest expeditions had taken place before, all of them by the North Col. It’s because the cost is less. Nepal government charges royalty at the rate of 10,000$ per head. If a team consists of eight members, the royalty charge is 80,000$ and it goes up like this till there are 15 members, which is the maximum number of members in a team. However, if a person wishes to go alone, he is charged 25,000$. Whereas in Tibet, the royalty is same for a lone climber as it is for a member in a team. We spoke to our Sherpa, who said that the costs for two people (me and Debasis Biswas) would be around Rs23lakhs (by North Col).
Although we started out from the rural Krishnanagar, where many people are still not aware of mountaineering, we had scalded many technically difficult peaks such as Shivling, Bhrigupanth, Kamet, Thalay Sagar, Choukhamba-I and others. They are lesser in height than the Everest, but are more risky. All these successful expeditions had made us famous amongst the mountaineering circles throughout India, though the common people came to know us only after we scaled Everest. This gave us the mental strength and confidence. We were sure that we would be able to raise the money no matter what. We raised the budget to 30lakhs and decided to take three more people from the Krishnanagar Association who would stay at the base camp. If our expenditure would be 10kakh each, theirs would be 2lakh each as they would not scale the peak. Thus, a five member team was formed. Mountain lovers throughout Bengal were very excited and enthused about the expedition. Help came from all corners and we were soon able to raise the money. Now, such expeditions are to be carried out under a local agency of that country because in case there is any mishap, our government would not be able to locate us. Then they have to contact that agency who would help out. Moreover, there are many administrative hurdles which is not possible for us to sort out sitting here. The agency that we contacted said that we have to wait as the Chinese government is not giving the permission. I realized where this was going. At that time, India and China were having conflicts regarding certain issues. The Indian government was also not giving permits to the Chinese climbers. Then I thought of the alternative, which is the South Col, which implied that our 30lakh budget would further increase by 7 lakh. At that point, there was no option of backing out. I made up my mind.
On 29thof March, the agency told us that permit was not available. Immediately, I took the decision of going by the South Col. Even my agent had no way to step down because the oxygen cylinders had already been bought, the shopping was complete and the Sherpa had been hired. Thus we set out for the South Col. but we were unable to enroll ourselves in any team (foreign). Those teams that go by the South Call usually set out by the 26thor 27th of March. We had reached Kathmandu on 1st April 2010. If it’s just the two of us, we would have to pay 45,000$ only as the royalty, which meant a further increase of 12-13lakhs, which wouldn’t be possible for us. And if we enroll ourselves in a team, the cost would be 20,000$ but all the teams had already set out. For one and half days, we were in anxiety. Finally, the agency told us about another team who were yet to set out and we immediately enrolled ourselves, paid the money and set out. This is all about the preparations behind the Everest expedition.
Q. You spoke about some administrative hurdles. What are they?
For an Everest expedition, the first thing would be to take the permission from Nepal Tourism and Civil Aviation. For the permission, you would have to submit photocopies of your visa, passport, fill up forms, etc. long before the expedition. Then you have to submit a certain amount for pollution and submit the list of items that you are carrying. If you are carrying packaged food and plastics, you have to bring them back as they cannot be disposed of otherwise. For this, there is a Garbage Deposit which is 4000$ which is approximately equivalent to Rs.2, 40,000. You have to buy oxygen from there or abroad as it’s not available here. You have to hire a Sherpa, preferably through an agent who would help to sort out the problem in case there are disagreements. Naturally, it’s not possible to carry all the food from here. So you need to buy the food items there. You also need to buy your own equipment. In case you haven’t bought them already, very good mountaineering equipment is available in Kathmandu. You hire a yak and porters and get them insured. All of this is not possible for a mountaineer alone. So there are agencies which take care of most of the administrative hurdles. Then you have to pay the royalty, hire a liaison officer, and pay for his allowance, accommodation and equipment.
Q. Who is a liaison officer?
There is one liaison officer per team irrespective of the number of team members. Liaison officer oversees whether you are following the pollution regulations, whether you are climbing a different peak instead of the one that you have cited, whether you have climbed the mountain at all! It is up to the liaison officer to climb with the team if he wishes to. He will also help you if you arrange for the supplies if you have difficulty in marketing, help make arrangements for a rescue if you are in danger.
Q. Apart from the oxygen cylinders, what are the different mountaineering equipments?Sleeping bag, a feather jacket and pants, specially designed climbing boots which are manufactured by very few countries, especially some western countries, crampon to attach below the boots for firm grip, very long ropes , good gloves, snow goggles, caps, goo ice axe, ascenders(jumars) which helps to climb up a rope, descenders that help to climb down the rope, piton which is fitted into the ice or the rock wall so as to tie the rope, carabiners which connect the piton and the rope. Other than these you need the usual stuff like gas cartridge or gas burner as you cannot carry gas cylinders higher than the base camp, utensils in which you would cook, rucksack to carry things on your back, tent, light weight mattress to sleep on, medicines and other things a tourist would take.
Q. What type of food is used in such high altitudes?
There is no restriction on food in higher altitudes. The fresher the food is the better. Till the base camp all the food items are available. Above that we don’t get vegetables, except in the Everest where they supply vegetables every week or so because there are so many climbers. If someone is very rich, he can afford to bring the food via helicopter. But for the rest of us, we eat whatever we eat at home like green leaves and vegetables. Of course, the fish is not fresh, it is canned. Many a times frozen chicken or mutton are also stored. This was the case till the base camp. Higher than that, we carry small gas cartridges and burners which last up to 2 and ½ hours.
We have to make our own water by melting the ice and eat only those food items which are ready to eat and only require boiling or heating. Like Maggi, cornflakes with milk powder, soups and tinned food. Foreign countries have very good tinned food but nowadays Indian dishes wrapped in aluminum foil are also available such as ready-to-eat palak paneer or ready-to-eat gajar ka halwa, etc. You just need to boil the pack and its ready but since the contain preservatives, we have much difficulty. We prefer fresh foods. Sometimes we drink Horlicks, sattuand eat biscuits, nuts and other dry foods. Sometimes we cook rotis or fried rice at the base camp and carry it with us in foils. The cold ensures that it doesn’t get spoiled.
Q. Apart from the base camp, how many camps are there in a mountain?
That depends on the height of the peak, the height of the base camp and the distance in between. Usually mountains of nearly 8000m altitude have four camps other than the base camp. We have done expeditions where we required only two or three other camps. There have also been cases where we had seven camps instead of the usual four. That’s because of the snow deposition. The distance between two camps may not be too large but our feet get stuck if we walk through fresh snow. So we put up another camp in between.
Q. Are these permanent or temporary? How is the location decided?
These are not permanent camps. Usually everyone puts up the base camp at the same place. If I’m scaling a virgin mountain , then I’d put up camp at a place of my choice, where there is no danger of an avalanche, land is relatively even, food and water is available, there is good connectivity with the locality down the mountain and where horses and porters can reach easily. This can be at an altitude of 12,000 feet or 14,000feet or even 10,000 feet. When the second team scales the mountain, they may put up their camp at a better place which is a little away from the place where the first team had camped. The third team might camp further away at a still better place and if it turns out to be the best, all the subsequent teams camp there and it becomes the base camp.
Time, distance and gradient or slope of the mountain becomes vital for choosing a place for the next camp called the first camp. Say that my base camp is at 14,000 feet and it takes me 5 hours to ascend 2,000 feet and 2 hours to descend, then I’d set up the first camp at 16,000 feet. If it takes me 8-10 hours to ascend 2,000 feet and4-5 hours to descend, then I’d set up the first camp at 15,000 feet. Thus, if I can scale a greater distance at a lesser time, I can set up my first camp at a higher altitude. However if I see that it takes me very long time to scale 4,000 feet but there is no suitable place for camping in between, then I have to set up my first camp at 18,000 feet despite the long time as there is no other option.
Q. It is a historic moment when the flag of a country is held atop a mountain peak. Your comments…
This tradition was there since the beginning. We have read in history books that when a place is conquered, whether it is a fort or a country, the flag of the victor is fluttered in the air as a sign of conquest. It is the Vijay-dhwaja . I feel that when a climber reaches the peak, he has conquered not the peak but all the adverse conditions, the harshness of nature, the fear of avalanche, and the probability of losing. It does not make a difference if the photo with the national flag is not taken, but people take because they are also representatives of their country. It is a proud moment for them. The people who see the photo also pride in the fact that they know this person or that he is a countryman. Hence, this tradition is continued.
Q. You have undertaken so many life threatening expeditions. Have you ever felt that it would be a great loss to your family if something happens to you…..
I had never thought about it till the Everest expedition. In 2010, after coming back from the Everest, I had led a rescue mission in the Gangotri glacier where a team from a club in Howrah went missing due to heavy snowfall. Their families would often call me up. We knew that they weren’t alive but still we searched for them lest they had survived somehow. There were three mountaineers and five porters. All of them had died. The wife of one of the climbers had pleaded with me, “I know he is alive. And only you can find him.” Ultimately, their bodies were recovered the following year when the snow thawed and they were exposed. But her words kept ringing in my ears. If I were to die, I would not feel a thing. But suppose I went missing and my body isn’t recovered. It would be a huge financial blow to my family because they would not get any claim money from the place where I work, unless my body is discovered. Otherwise, it would take seven years before I am declared dead. Nevertheless, it never stopped me from going to future expeditions.
Q. You had a near death experience at Dhaulagiri (world’s seventh largest peak). How did you spend that one fatal night?
The previous night we had started the climb at 11:45pm. We had climbed throughout the night and through the whole day. An accident had taken place before us. A Spanish gentleman and his Sherpa had slipped because of a blizzard but they were caught in a crevice and they survived. Moreover, we should have completed the ascent and returned to the previous camp by then but it was 3 o’clock at night and the peak was still 100m away. So we decided to descent. After climbing down for a while, I sat down at an altitude 0f nearly 8,000 feet as I was fully exhausted. I didn’t understand why it happened but later I realized that the oxygen had run out. Debasis and his Sherpa were also there with us. I told the Sherpas to carry us down on their backs. But it was not possible from that altitude and it was night. Debasis had already broken down and cried. He managed to convince Pemba Sherpa to somehow take him to the basecamp. The other Sherpa told me that he would come and take me next morning. I asked him to stay there but he refused and climbed down.
Then I started feeling helpless. I could sense my outcome. If I were to lie there in the open air at that altitude and in the biting cold, I would collapse anyway. The oxygen content was 1/3rdand for a man like me who lives in the plain land rich in oxygen content, it would be impossible to survive. They all descended and left me there. After a while, a voice inside me said that everything would be all right. There was a Japanese woman who was also descending to the third camp. Her Sherpa also had an oxygen cylinder. No one told me this but I developed a fixed belief that the Sherpa would come and rescue me in the morning. Maybe it was my experience speaking. If I had been down and someone had been stuck at a higher altitude, I would send the Sherpa to rescue the person. Another thought came to my mind, “Let’s enjoy!” Perhaps such a night would never again come in my life. I will enjoy and I will survive! But that thought was momentary. Feeling scared of death would be useless. At one point, mu heart started palpating as it was yearning for oxygen. I had to breathe three times faster than the normal rate to make up the deficiency. My heart could fail due to overfunctioning. Then I felt extremely thirsty. The water had run out at 6pm the previous day. I opened my gloves, scratched out some ice with my nails and put in in my mouth. Theni fell asleep without realizing.
Suddenly, I woke up and saw the skyline. I had seen it the previous day at around 4am. Then my heart was filled with joy. The sun would rise, there would be light and I would be spared off the terrible cold. Again, I slipped into unconsciousness. I might have never woken up….but I did and saw that the sky had lightened. I didn’t fall asleep again though I felt drowsy. There was another climber apart from the Spanish gentleman. He too was supposed to have slipped but he was climbing down. I asked him for water. He showed me his empty thermo flask and climbed down. Then I saw another figure coming towards me through the faint darkness.
Previously, I had seen a torchlight coming from one of the dark crevices. I had also kept my light on for a long time. There was a Japanese woman who was also climbing down with us. She had two Sherpa. At one point, they got diverted. The light was hers. Later, I came to know that she had been using the oxygen since the first camp (we used oxygen from the second camp) and died of exhaustion when it ran out. She had also put up the fourth camp. One of the Sherpa reached the fourth camp and the other had climbed down to the third camp. He suffered from cerebral oedema and died. When I saw Pasang Sherpa, I told him to look around and see if there is any oxygen. Sitting up, I clicked some photos with the camera that the Sherpa was carrying. It has got stuck but one blow and it started working again. Then he packed everything up and climbed down. He didn’t know that another Sherpa would come but I did.
I lost track of time. After what seemed like a few hours, that Sherpa has come up. He first gave me oxygen. Then he tried to carry me on his back but it could not be done. So we climbed, rather crawled down. Sometimes he dragged and pulled me through as I had no strength. Somehow he was able to take me to the fourth camp in the evening. There they gave me hot fluid to drink. The next day they carried me to the third camp. I still had a little bit of strength left but my body was giving away. From the third camp, they rescued me with the help of a helicopter. Debasis and Pemba Sherpa had crawled down in a similar fashion and reached the fourth camp in the morning. The Sherpa who had left me had taken shelter in a crevice and had come up the next day. Debasis and Pemba Sherpa had thought that I was no longer alive. Practically speaking, I shouldn’t have been alive in that high altitude without oxygen. Dhaulagiri is infamously known as the “Mountain of Storm” because of the frequent storms and blizzards. Thankfully, that night there was no blizzard or snowfall. Having an accident is a different but surviving from such a situation is a rare experience.
Q. You were only 100m away from the peak. Then why didn’t you climb it?
There was a blizzard, we were late, the Spanish gentleman before us met with an accident and also from the fourth camp onwards, there was no rope fixing. Usually, a mountaineer or a Sherpa who is a very good climber climb up to a certain height beforehand and fix the ropes so that the others might easily climb difficult areas. It is called regging or rope-fixing. We had done that till a little above the third camp but it was not done towards the end but it was badly needed.
Q. Do you think the government provides ample support?
See, our country is a developing country. Though there has been developments, yet in a country where people still don’t get two square meals a day, doing such adventure sports itself is a futility. The West Bengal government is helpful. It has a separate depart called West Bengal Mountaineering and Adventure Sports Foundation and I’m still the official adviser. It is under the youth welfare department. Financial aid is given to those who go on expeditions. Help in terms of equipment is also given. Rs5,00,000 was given to each of the four members from Kolkata who scaled Mt.Everest recently. The help might not be great but still it tries to help.
Q. Your tips for budding mountaineers.
If someone is ready to go only once, then it does not amount to mountaineering. If one is really serious, then the foremost criteria would be to love mountains. We mainly scale the Himalayas. So one needs to love the Himalayas, gather information about it, keep oneself fit and healthy, and be trained in trekking. Being fit for mountaineering is very essential. Say you can play football well, can run very fast and are very healthy otherwise but the make-up of your body is such that you fall sick whenever you go to high altitudes. That means you are unfit for mountaineering. Otherwise, with proper guidance and training, one can do it, scaling easier peaks at first and gradually proceeding to the more difficult ones. A mountaineer should be able to take the right decision at the right time, be very patient as one can suffer greatly in the beginning, so much that it would force you to cry. The suffering, of course, is alleviated once you come back from a successful expedition and start loving mountaineering.
Q. How do mountaineers keep themselves fit in the months when they are not climbing?
It is not that you need to be a fitness freak in order to be a mountaineer. A healthy body, stamina, courage and endurance are required. You have to be mentally prepared to climb 20km at a stretch if the need arises. As for exercises, I think that running and free hand exercises are enough. Now, if anyone is physically very strong, then that is definitely an added advantage.
Q. After all this, would you still like to go on expeditions?
Lots of people had asked this after the mishap. My only concern now is the condition of my feet (points towards his feet where most of the fingers haven been amputated) . My body has not healed yet and my brother’s family has strongly objected to future expeditions. My mother has also objected. My family, i.e., my wife Sriti and son Romit, have shown no objections. The immediate concern is the payment of the Rs22,00,000 that the agency has charged for rescuing me. So I haven’t thought about the future.
Q. Finally, your message to the readers….
We fail to realize how fortunate we are that we have been blessed with the majestic Himalayas and its bountiful natural beauty. People from foreign countries are desperate to see the Himalayas at least once in their lifetime. You need not be a mountaineer like me, but if you are related to adventure in any way, be it rock climbing, camping or simply as tourists, please do visit the Himalayas at least once.
For further info,visit:http://mak.org.in/
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