May 26: Sandhosh Kumar, 27, became the first Tamil to conquer Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak on Sunday.
The Singapore-based investment banker, who was born in Puducherry and went to school in Chennai, unfurled a banner that read Thamizh Vazhgha (Hail Tamil) when he reached the summit of the world’s tallest peak. Sandhosh’s team reached the 8,848-metre-high summit at the end of a gruelling eight-week expedition that began early on March 31 in Kathmandu.
The seven-member international team — Sandhosh was the lone Indian — started by the traditional South Col route of the southeast ridge of Nepal. One member dropped out midway.
CHENNAI: City youth Sandhosh Kumar (27) on Sunday morning became the first Chennaite to scale Mount Everest. The investment banker is also the second Tamilian to reach the world’s tallest peak. Upon scaling the peak he displayed a banner “Thamizh Vazhgha” as a mark of his achievement.
News Just in (Via Sandhosh’s Dad)- Sandhosh Kumar and team has successfully summitted the peak of Mount Everest, World’s highest one.
Sandhosh and team was supposed to be starting on 21st night and reach the peak on 22nd Morning, but the schedule was delayed by 1 day. They started the final summit last night and successfully made it to the top of the world today (23rd May 2010) morning.
Currently the team is descending from Mount Everest to camp2.
We’re expecting more updates and photos by tomorrow night (24th May) once the team reaches Base camp.
Thanks to each one of you for your wishes, support. We’re thankful to our sponsors, partners and friends for their support and assistance.
Sandhosh has taken up the climb in support of the cause against child sexual abuse. Please visit his website www.millionpledges.com and take the pledge against child sexual abuse.
Let us wait to hear more details from the man himself.
Day 49 – May 18 – Climb to Camp 2 and sleep
Day 50 – May 19 – Rest at Camp 2
Day 51 – May 20 – Climb to Camp 3 and sleep on Oxygen
Day 52 – May 21 – Climb to Camp 4 on Oxygen and leave by 9pm for summit
Day 53 – May 22 – Summit by morning and descend to Camp 2
Day 54 – May 23 – Descend to Everest BC
Day 55 – May 24 – Rest day at Everest BC
Day 56 – May 25 – Descend to Pheriche
Day 57 – May 26 – Descend to Namche
Day 58 – May 27 – Descend to Lukla
Day 59 – May 28 – Fly to Kathmandu
I was woken up by the roar of a few helicopters early in the morning.
Apparently, the helicopters were removing some of the dead bodies off Everest from Camp 2. The helicopters were still not equipped to land at Camp 2 but at least they were able to hover over Camp 2 for long enough, so the Sherpas could tie the bodies off a hanging rope. I had earlier mentioned that there has already been an accident this year. I didn’t want to mention anything on this blog until enough time had passed. Off the two Russians who had attempted to summit Lhotse, one of them had passed away. The helicopters had come to remove the Russian and a Swiss climber’s body who had passed away two years ago at the South Col, Camp 4. The Sherpas helped bring the bodies down to Camp 2 and these new helicopters were finally able to get the bodies to their loved ones which would not have been possible in previous years.
Day 48 – Our oxygen masks
On the brighter side, we heard about a couple of summits today. On the 7th of May, we had 2 Canadians, the first non-Sherpas to summit Everest this year. After the 7th, today was the first day, people followed suit. Rumor is that a couple of Koreans and a Finnish girl summitted today. Apparently, the Finnish girl was competing with another Finnish girl to be the first to complete Seven Summits. A lot of pressure on both the ladies but I guess there can be only one winner. Congrats to the summitters.
The guides had a meeting this morning and finally decided on the dates. Even though there is barely a perfect window with sub 30miles/hr winds, the guides decided on a date that was good enough.
Day 47 – Picking our summit food n snacks
Unfortunately, I need to keep it a secret for now until we start moving up. It has been known for other teams to follow IMG’s schedule and we want to avoid traffic on the summit day as much as possible. We started working on getting our summit food n snacks ready and the Sherpas got to try out thier oxygen masks. It is getting exciting and nerve-wrecking at the same time, as we approach closer to THE date.
We decided to do something a little bit more challenging as the restlessness got to us. We decided to climb Kalapattar via Pumori base camp, climb down to Gorakshep and come back to Everest base camp, a nice long 4.5 hour trip. With all that acclimatization, it was a fairly easy climb to Kalapattar, compared to the climb we did a month or so back and the weather was much better up there. Of course, from there, we could see snow blowing off the top of Everest, indicating winds were still too strong to attempt the summit. It was a good change to meet some of trekkers climbing Kalapattar. In fact, later that day, we had the second set of IMG trekkers who trekked into base camp. Six women from India, Australia and USA. Spent the afternoon chatting with a few new faces
Saw a helicopter fly above base camp today. It was a sight-seeing helicopter. Until last year, even flying into base camp for rescues was considered extremely dangerous. Apparently, the latest helicopters, the french B3’s are capabale of flying at these high altitudes relatively easily and they have started these sight-seeing trips to the western cwm.
Day 45- The french B3
Must cost over $10,000 for sure considering a rescue from base camp is $8000. Even more fascinating is that the first helicopter to ever land on the summit of Everest is a stripped down version of this B3. There are videos of it in youtube for all to see. It used to be that, no matter how rich you are, it is impossible to reach the summit of Everest without the effort of your own two legs. The landing of this helicopter would change the rules on Everest forever. I am sure in the future, people would be able to pay thousands of dollars to be on that helicopter and sadly, summitting Everest may not take the joyous 2 months after all.
