2nd batch of tribal youths to scale Mt Everest in May

Napgur: Eleven students — four girls and seven boys — selected from the adivasi ashram schools from across Maharashtra reached Kathmandu on Sunday. They are the second batch of Mission Shaurya, an initiative undertaken by the tribal development department of the state government.
Launched in 2018 as a pilot project in Chandrapur district, Mission Shauraya had ten tribal youths selected from three ashram schools of the district trained to scale Mt. Everest. Of these five could reach the summit. The team was mentored and trained by mountaineers Bimal and Avinash Deoskar, and Shekhar Babu of Transcend Adventure, Hyderabad, who trained them in rock climbing and winter training.

Mission Shaurya aims at giving goals to tribal youth to tap their innate strength and groom them as leaders. “These young leaders will inspire people in their communities and hand hold them through difficult times, nurture the culture and develop vision which is rooted in community service and ethical behaviour,” says tribal commissioner Manisha Verma.

This year the criteria for selection saw some changes. “Besides extending it to the entire state, we decided to select Std XI students who were 18 years and above. We could get this combination in 64 schools from where 203 were shortlisted,” Avinash told TOI.

The final eleven are from Melghat, Chandrapur, Pandharkawada, Palghar, Nashik and Dhule. They underwent rigorous training from August 2018 to March 2019. Two of the youth who had reached the summit last year were also part of the team. They mentored the participants this time.

“All the participants are sportspersons and have played district and state tournaments,” says Deoskar about their fitness levels.

“This time the training was also extended by 20 days,” says Avinash. Besides training at Hyderabad and Darjeeling, the top 30 students were put through advanced mountaineering course at Himalayan Centre for Adventure and Eco Tourism in Sikkim. They scaled the very challenging Lako Kang peak at 19,500ft and also trained for rescue tactics, resilience and camaraderie.

Twenty youths were picked up for a final round of acclimatization at a winter training camp in Leh and Ladakh. “Here they were provided exposure to higher altitude and low oxygen areas. None of the 18 who went through this training showed any symptoms of altitude sickness,” says Avinash.

For the final selection, it was 70% physical endurance and 30% intellectual and emotional quotient, team work, and sacrifice. These traits were inculcated in them through different games. “The message we give them is that individually too they can succeed only if others complete the task with them,” adds Avinash.

The team, accompanied by Bimla and team doctor Arti Kelkar, will be staying in Kathmandu for three days for equipment sorting and fitting. They will leave for Lhasa on April 12 and halt there for a day before leaving for Everest base camp by road which will take four days.

Around April 23 these youths will move to higher altitudes and reach North Col. Once there they will keep moving to higher and lower altitude which will keep them energetic while they wait for windows of fair weather. There climb for the summit will begin on May 11 or 12.