Thursday, May 22, 2014
Renowned mountaineer Chhanda Gayen and two of her
accompanying sherpas, who were attempting to scale the 8,505-metre-high
Kanchenjunga West, known as Yalung Kang in Nepal, are reported to be missing.
Gayen, best known for being the first civilian women from
West Bengal to scale Mount Everest, went missing Tuesday after being caught in
an avalanche, as per the information received here.
She annexed the 8,585-metre high Kanchenjunga Main, the
third tallest peak, on May 18 along with three other climbers from Kolkata —
Tusi Das, Dipankar Ghosh and Rajib Bhattacharjee.
According to reports available Tusi, Rajiv and Dipankar
decided to return to the base camp after the summit while Chhanda along with
two sherpas — Dawa Wangchu and Mingma Temba — went on to climb the nearby
Yalung Kang, also known as Kanchenjuga West.
Chhanda was with Sherpas Dewa Wangchu and Migma Temba when
an avalanche struck close to the summit late Tuesday afternoon. There has been
no contact with them ever since. Nepal authorities launched a heli-search on
Wednesday and found traces of an avalanche at her last known location. But
there was no trace of her or the Sherpas. Another search will be launched on
Thursday.
Pusi Das, a climber from Kolkata, who had accompanied
Chhanda to Mt Everest, also summitted Kanchenjunga just after her. Together
with Everesters Rajib Bhjattacharya and Dipankar Ghosh, they came down to
summit camp. This is where Chhanda parted company and proceeded towards Mt
Yalung Kang, also known as Kanchenjunga West.
The last contact with Chhanda was around 3pm on Tuesday when
one of her Sherpas reported that they were very close to the summit of Mt
Yalung Kang. The avalanche hit soon after this.
