Mountaineer Baljeet Kaur who braved inhospitable terrain gets rousing welcome on her arrival in Solan

Ambika Sharma

Advertisement

Solan, April 29

Baljeet Kaur, the mountaineer who braved inhospitable terrain for 48 hours while descending from Mt Annapurna, was given a rousing welcome on her arrival at Solan on Saturday.

Narrating her arduous journey, Kaur said it was a combination of various factors which led to the misadventure while descending from Mt Annapurna. She was reported missing on April 18 but rescued hours later from where she was rushed to a hospital at Kathmandu.

She was aware of the dangers which Mt Annapurna would pose while climbing without oxygen.

“It was my first such experience of climbing the peak without oxygen and as always I wanted to summit Mt Annapurna and return to the base camp the same day.”

She had prepared her family, especially warning her mother that this would be a difficult climb where she should not pay heed to rumours about her and wait for her phone call.

She was given an experienced sherpa initially by her agency but she alleged that he was paid extra money by some foreigner following which he deserted her midway.

Kaur was promised another experienced sherpa. The replacement, however, came at that height and he sought time to relax at the base camp before taking on the onwards journey. After acclimatising at the base camp, she was asked to go ahead with a porter while the sherpa would follow them. The three came together till the base camp on April 15 but she was left only with a porter on April 16 while the sherpa was to follow later.

“Since the sherpa who accompanied them had not rested for two days and was tired, I decided to give up the journey this year and come back the next year.  Also, he had no experience of climbing without oxygen. I was in no position to argue and finally decided to go ahead after being pursued by the Sherpa,” she said.

She successfully summited Mt Annapurna on April 17 at 6 pm after remaining without food, water, sleep and oxygen for 36 hours. But she developed hallucinations and acute mountain sickness overcame her as she started her journey back. She was deserted by the sherpa who did not give her oxygen as she gasped for breath and said he would “reveal” that she had used oxygen in the climb, said Kaur.

She started climbing down with the help of a safety rope while unsuccessfully trying to get attention from Camp 4 where she saw some lights but her cries remains unheard. She also slipped while trying to hold on to the rope in a state of utter fatigue and somehow dragged herself to move ahead. While trying to read the Gurbani she saw an app which was given to seek emergency help on her cell phone. She sought a rescue team from the agency, which arrived after five hours braving all challenges. She managed to enter the chopper and successfully come back.

She attributed her success to her mentor, Balkar Singh, as well as to the love received from the people. Annapurna is the tenth-highest mountain in the world, standing at 8,091 metres above sea level.