Pune mountaineers take up the great Mt Meru challenge

The flagging off ceremony will take place on 15 April in Pune while the group will leave for Gangotri on 11 May

Pune-based Giripremi, a premier mountaineering club of the country, is set to flag off an ambitious expedition to Mt Meru, widely considered a more challenging climb than Mt Everest - the tallest peak of the world.

The Garhwal-Himalayas have been home to breathtaking and magnanimous mountains. Among them is Mt. Meru, which stands tall between peaks like Shivling, Thalai Sagar, Bhrigu, and many others.

The group of three peaks named South Peak (6660 meters), Central Peak (6310 meters), and North Peak (6450 meters) is part of Mt. Meru.

The team is being mentored by Umesh Zirpe, the founder-Director of Guardian Giripremi Institute of Mountaineering (GGIM), the state-of-the-art mountaineering institute.

Zirpe is an expedition leader of several 8000-metre mountai expeditions, including Mt Everest.

The flagging off ceremony will take place on April 15 in Pune while the group will leave for Gangotri on 11 May.

“The experience of climbing Mt. Meru’s base camp is different altogether. You can reach Mt Everest base camp by trail, but here we had to set rope to reach base camp. It gave us the sense of challenges Mt Meru possesses. The preparation of the expedition is also planned accordingly,” said Zirpe.

“Climbing Central Peak is the most challenging of the three and it was climbed only four times in the history of mountaineering. The climbing route from North-East ridge to the central peak is the deadliest as the icy rock walls are beyond 90 degrees with a granite composition that makes the gripping difficult. The shape of the rock patch is similar to the shape of a Shark Fin, hence it is called the Shark Fin route. This route is filled with avalanches (sic),” added Zirpe, who would be leading the expedition.

The Giripremi had put together an experienced seven-member team for the mission. Ashish Mane, who has climbed five 8000-metre peaks.

Including Mt. Everest, Mt. Kanchenjunga, Mt. Lhotse, Mt. Makalu and Mt. Manaslu will also be part of the expedition. Mane will be accompanied by Krishna Dhokale, Vivek Shivade, Dr. Sumeet Mandale, Pawan Hadole, and Varun Bhagwat.

Krishna, an ace rock climber, has climbed Mt. Everest and Mt. Kanchenjunga along with 100+ rock faces in the Sahyadris.

He is an experienced technical climber and his expertise in battling rock faces would be crucial in this expedition.

Like Krishna, there is Dr. Sumeet, who is a skilled rock climber and summiteer of Mt. Kanchenjunga and Mt. Cho Oyu.

Vivek Shivade, Pawan Hadole, and Varun Bhagwat are also part of the team. This trio has completed the ice climbing courses and is ready for all the challenges. Vivek and Pawan were the summiteers of Mt. Manda-1 and their confidence is booming.

Vivek is also a summiteer of Mt. Kanchenjunga and Ama Dablam, the peaks that are considered to be the hardest challenges in the mountaineering world.

The icing on the top for this team is the inclusion of Wing Commander Devidutta Panda. He is one of India’s finest climbers. He is known for his alpine-style climbing and has climbed Mt. Everest, Mt. Lhotse, and Mt. Dhaulagiri among the 8000er peaks.

He was the former Vice-President of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling, and has tons of experience in mountaineering. Wing Commander Panda and Mingma Sherpa’s inclusion in the team has made the team one of the most experienced groups of mountaineers that have climbed together.

Akhil Katkar will be the Base Camp Manager.