Back from the jaws of death, will continue adventure a bit differently: Bimla Deoskar

Nagpur: The all-women Fit@50 trekking team completed their almost five-months-long trans-Himalayan journey on July 24 at Kargil. The trek, which started in March from Arunachal Pradesh, saw a dozen women over the age of 50 travel through some of the most treacherous mountain passes in India and Nepal. While such expeditions always come with their share of ‘adventure’, what happened on the morning of July 5 was something nobody was prepared for.
At a daunting height of 17,000ft above sea level, as high as six Burj Khalifas stacked on top of each other, the group was trekking through a very risky pass on a chilly morning. The Lamkhaga Pass, located between Gangotri and Kinnaur in Uttarakhand, is known for its flat 90 degree fall to a glacier below on one side and a mountain dotted with melting snow and big boulders on the other. The path which winds in between these two extremes is the only place which offers some solace to the trekkers.
Around 10.30am, Nagpurian Bimla Deoskar stepped on one of these boulders, just like she had done so many times before as they were spread all over this path. However, this one was different. Deoskar said, “The snow underneath it had melted due to which it had become loose. The boulder gave away, causing me to slip forward towards the slope.”
The rolling boulder hit her, resulting in immediate dislocation of her left hip and fracture in her right leg. Unaware of the physical damage which happened within seconds, Deoskar’s ordeal was far from over. “I had a 12kg bag over my shoulders and rolled down literally in somersault style twice. I don’t know how, but somehow my body stopped rolling and I was lying flat on the ground in pain.”
What Deoskar didn’t know was that she was just one more somersault away from a straight drop into the abyss below.
Watching the entire event unfold before her eyes was legendary mountaineer Padma Bhushan Bachendri Pal. “After she fell down, I noticed something which shook me to the core. Some other boulders at the top had come loose and started rolling down towards her,” said Pal.
Rougly the size of a big suitcase, these boulders gathered momentum as they hurtled towards where Deoskar lay in acute pain, and unable to move even an inch. Pal said, “For a second I thought, this is it. Anything can happen now.”
Deoskar on the other hand does not have any memory of this because of the unbearable pain and shock.
Pal, the team’s leader and first Indian woman to summit Mount Everest, said, “As the two big boulders rolled down with great speed and noise, some divine intervention caused them to turn direction at the last moment. They went past Bimla, just a meter or so past her.” Even the experienced Pal, who has decades of mountaineering experience, said this was the most frightening ‘near-miss’ incidents she has seen.
“Just half an hour before this, some team members were looking down at the sharp drop and spotted old trekker’s bags and other stuff far below. And the conversation was that somebody must have fallen down long time back and now that’s all that remained,” said Pal. “I immediately told them to stop talking like this because it unnecessarily sends a negative vibe, because the route is anyway very dangerous,” she added.
No sooner had this conversation ended, the team witnessed Deoskar slip.
The biggest challenge was planning the rescue operation. Hurdles were extreme altitude, narrow paths and a severely injured Deoskar. “Stretcher rescue from that particular point was impossible,” said Pal, who had to summon decades of experience and chart the future course.
“One of her porters stepped forward and said he will carry Bimla on his back to the point from where they can stage the next phase of rescue,” said Pal. But moving Deoskar even an inch meant excruciating pain. “Bimla showed amazing grit in bearing it all. We could not stay up there because weather at that altitude can turn nasty any time,” said Pal.
Soon the army also got involved in the rescue mission but an air evacuation was ruled out due to their location. Pal said, “The entire rescue operation lasted 23 hours, and this would not have been possible without the help of the army.” The 4 Assam Regiment carried Deoskar almost a day around some dangerous passes, heavily overflowing nullahs and rocky steep descent.
After that, the army arranged transportation for a trip to a hospital in Shimla. Avinash Deoskar, Bimla’s husband and himself a professional trekker, too reached the hill city within 24 hours. The Deoskar couple undertook another gruelling journey to reach Nagpur on July 8 for surgery, under the care of their long trusted doctors.
Even then, the expedition was on Deoskar’s mind. She said, “Before being taken inside the operation theatre, I told the doctor I want to go to Drass, which was the end point of our expedition.”
Avinash said, “Bimla is mentally very tough. She had made up her mind to be back with her team, but doctors had advised her bed rest.” But her iron will ensured that Deoskar undertook a series of connecting flights and road journey from Nagpur, all the way to Kargil. The only difference, this time she was on a wheelchair.
The Deoskar couple reached Kargil on July 23 and the very next day the Fit@50 expedition team arrived there. “Bimla was there at the start and the end of the expedition,” said Avinash.
“I will never forget this expedition in my life because a second life has been given to me. My team members and the army saved my life,” said Bimla. “I will continue with my adventures after recovering but will have to rethink on the way I go about it,” she added.
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Avinash said, “For saving Bimla’s life, we cannot thank enough the Army Adventure Cell, Ministry of Youth Affairs And Sports, and the role played by the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation in supporting us.”