How 5 Tribal Students From Maharashtra Climbed Mt Everest

“Narrow trails, dead bodies stuck in ice & one wrong step meant death”, recount youngsters who scaled Everest

Team members of ‘Mission Shaurya’ scale the Everest.

(Photo Courtesy: Tribal Development Department, Government of Maharashtra)

After months of intense training, preparing and finally scaling mount Everest, the 10 tribal youngsters from Maharashtra’s Chandrapur are back in their homes. Summing up her experience over the last one year, 18-year-old Manisha Dhuvre said, “A year ago, I did not even know what the Everest was and then I climbed to its summit.”

Training for “Mission Shaurya” by the Maharashtra Govt’s Tribal Development Department, took place in different stages after the students were identified from various Ashram schools in Chandrapur district in August 2017.

“We started our training from Wardha at Gyan Bharti Skill Development. Here, we were given a detailed knowledge about the Everest. After this, we were sent for rock climbing. In Darjeeling we were then taught how to walk wearing crampons. We were then taken to Ladakh to experience how one lives in a high altitude. Only after this training, we were taken to scale the Everest.”

Manisha Dhuvre, Student 

From growing up in a forest terrain to mastering mountaineering in a matter of months, the journey has been extremely rewarding for Manisha and the 9 others. However, only 5 of them could make it to the summit as the climb was deadly in places.

“We trekked all night. The trail was narrow and I was so scared. A single wrong move meant falling down. We saw dead bodies stuck in the rocks, this really scared me. The person was wearing a gold watch. I just couldn’t stop looking at the body.”

Pramesh Ale, Student 

Afraid of meeting with a similar fate, Pramesh spurred on towards the summit with the other students. But 19-year-old Vikas Soham’s journey to the tip of the mountain was the most remarkable. Soham had to scale 21,000 feet twice!

“I left from the base camp for trekking but then my friend fell ill on the way. I returned all the way from a height of 21,000 ft to the base camp. If I had waited for 2-3 more hours to bring him down, then he could have died. He was lucky to have survived. After this, I was determined to climb the mountain again and I did it. I climbed it all over again.”

Vikas Soham, Student 

All the five youngsters who made it to the summit have received Rs 25 lakhs from the Maharashtra Government. “This money means a lot to me. I will be using it for my further education,” said Manisha Dhuvre adding that for now, she’s keen to go back home to her family.

As Maharashtra’s mountaineers reach home after almost a year, they now set their eyes on scaling new peaks.

Editor: Veeru Mohan