First civilian expedition from Bengal scales Everest

Basanta Singha Roy and Debabrata Biswas, two members of the first civilian expedition from West Bengal by 'Mountaineers Association of Krishnanagar', reached the top of Mount Everest on Monday morning. According to a message received from the expedition base camp at Solo Khumbu in Nepal, team leader Basanta Singha Roy and another member Debabrata Biswas reached the top of the world's highest mountain at 0740 hrs.

The message said the two had set out from the summit camp at South Col (mountain pass) above 26,000 feet at around 2200 hrs on Sunday night and reached the top after a gruelling climb of about ten hours. The expedition organised by MAK which left for the mountain on April 4 had initially planned to climb through the Rongbook glacier, North Col and North East ridge route in Tibet, but were disallowed by the Chinese government. The expedition members then decided to climb from the traditional Khumbu Glacier, South Col, Southeast ridge route in Nepal. The expedition members set up their base camp at Solo Khumbu at 16,000 feet on April 14. They set out from the base camp for the final push on May 13.

Other members of the team were Asok Roy, Sourav Sinchan Mondal and Bivas Sarkar. West Bengal Sports Minister Kanti Ganguly congratulated the team. He said a civic reception would be accorded to them. Leader of the first successful Indian Everest Expedition in 1965 Captain M S Kohli also congratulated the expedition leader and its members for their success. In a message Captain Kohli said "It's wonderful. My congratulations to all of them." Two Bengali climbers Commander Satyabrata Dam from the navy and Captain Shipra Mazumdar from the army had climbed Everest a few years ago.