NEW DELHI: A mountaineer duo has climbed five 6,000 metre-plus peaks in eastern Ladakh in less than 24 hours, reaching two of them for the first time ever by any expedition.
Harshad Rao, an entrepreneur-cum-professional mountaineer from Pune, and Saurabh Sharma, a software engineer from Delhi, scaled five peaks of the Rulang Nala massif on September 27 and 28.
The two mountaineers, who drove to Ladakh on motorbikes from their respective cities, also scaled another five 6,000 metre-plus peaks over a 10-day period, climbing in all 10 peaks over a 12-day expedition.
“Of the 12 days of expedition, six were lost due to inclement weather,” Rao told PTI here, adding that the 10 peaks were scaled in seven days.
All these peaks lie between the Tsokar and Tsomoriri lakes of eastern Ladakh, Rao said.
He said the expedition was carried out on a shoe-string budget, without any help from sherpas, high-altitude guides, porters, or any support crew for assistance.
Rao and Sharma submitted the GPS data of their expedition to Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF).
The virgin peaks will be named once the formalities related to the trek are completed.
The expedition began on September 17 and ended on September 28.
The first of the five peaks was scaled at 1.05 pm on September 27, followed by a short trek along the ridge to reach the summit of the second peak at 1.50 pm, Rao said.
He said the third peak of the Ruksang Nala massif was scaled at 3.09 pm on September 27. The other two peaks were scaled at 11.30 am and 1 pm on September 28.
“We had not planned to scale the five peaks within 24 hours, but it was just a matter of coincidence,” Sharma said. In 2020, the IMF had appealed to mountaineers to explore open trekking peaks in Ladakh to boost civilian tourism. (PTI)
