Sinlung /
20 May 2013

6 More Northeast Climbers Script Everest Glory



Guwahati, May 20
: Six more members of the Northeast Mount Everest expedition team rewrote history as they reached the top of the world on Saturday morning. Arunachal Pradesh's Anshu Jamsenpa, a mother of two kids, scaled the Everest for the third time.

Sixteen-year-old Manipuri boy Nemeirakpam Chingkheinganba, the youngest climber in the team, reached the peak at 5.15am on Saturday. He is now the youngest mountaineer from the NE region to reach the Everest. The other members of the expedition team are Tarun Saikia (Assam), David Zohmangaiha (Mizoram), Kazi Sherpa (Sikkim) and Wangsuk Myrthong (Meghalaya). Zohmangaiha, Saikia and Myrthong are the first ones from Mizoram, Assam and Meghalaya to scale the highest peak on earth.

Three other NE climbers - N Bidyapati Devi (Manipur), Nima Lama (Arunachal Pradesh) and Anand Gurung (Sikkim) - reached the peak on the first day on Friday and unfurled the expedition flag atop Mount Everest. Puyamcha Mohon (Manipur) is expected to reach the summit by Sunday morning. President Pranab Mukherjee flagged off the team of 14 climbers, including six from Manipur, two each from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Sikkim and one each from Mizoram and Meghalaya, from Rashtrapati Bhavan on March 20. The expedition team is the first that exclusively comprises mountaineers from the northeast.

It is organized by Manipur government in collaboration with the Manipur Mountaineering and Trekking Association (MMTA) and is funded by the North Eastern Council (NEC), Shillong.

The leader of the expedition, L Surjit, is also the president of MMTA. "The association is really proud of the historic achievement of all climbers with each of them setting records in different ways for their respective states and the country," MMTA's administrative officer Mayanglangbam Kumar said. People in Assam congratulated Tarun Saikia for becoming the first one from the state to scale Everest. A resident of Narengi in Guwahati, Saikia had scaled many peaks and attended an advanced course of mountaineering at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI), Darjeeling.

Anshu Jamsenpa scaled Everest twice on May 12 and May 21 in 2011. A few days before the expedition was flagged off from Imphal on February 25, Chingkheingamba had promised his mother Nameirakpam Sabitri that he would give his best to achieve the feat. "Ema (mother) don't worry for my mission, please bless me. I'll do my best to conquer the Everest."

"My brave son has done it. Minutes after I got the news of his success in the morning, tears of happiness trickled down," said an emotional Sabriti, who was a prominent archer. She had bagged two golds in national championships.

Chingkheinganba's father Nameirakpam Tomba, a pradhan of Patsoi gram panchyat in Imphal West, was also an ace mountaineer. "My son's historic achievement has really made me happier than my election victory," Tomba quipped.

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