ARMY CHIEF COMMENDS FIRST INDIAN EXPEDITION TO ANNAPURNA-I

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General S Padmanabhan Chief of the Army Staff commended the performance of the Indian Army Mountaineering Expedition team to Annapurna-I for scaling one of the most technically difficult peak, here today. In fact, this is the first Indian team to have scaled this peak. Complimenting Lt Col SC Sharma, the team leader, and other members of this 17 member Expedition, Gen S Padmanabhan attributed this success to the excellent team spirit, mental and physical toughness of highest order, love for adventure and indomitable courage demonstrated throughout the expedition. He experiences his satisfaction over the training imparted before the expedition was launched. The 17-member expedition team was flagged off by General S Padmanabhan on March 15th. They reached base camp at the height of 1500 ft on 11 April. On 05th May a summit team of four members and three Sherpas began the climb from camp III at 2300 hrs. Braving the glacial winds and treacheries terrain, Subedar Lalit Kumar Negi, Havildar CN Bodh, Naik Ragender Singh and Rifleman Jagat Singh reached the summit the summit on Monday, May 06th. This tenth highest peak of the world Annapurna I (8901 meters), located in Central Nepal, and is still regarded as a very difficult mountain due to arduous long approach march to Base Camp and its multifarious technical difficulties in climbing. There have been a number of instances where expeditions have not even reached its Base camp. Before this 101 men and 05 women, in 120 documented expeditions, have stood on the summit of Annapurna-1, whereas 48 men and 03 women have succumbed to her rage. Degree of difficulty in summiting the mountain can be gauged by the fact that on an average not even one climber per expedition has been able to scale it. .