Abhinav Vashisht
Kullu, July 3
Ratan Negi, a trekker of Raison village in Kullu, and his team has explored a new trekking route covering peaks of Deo Tibba, Doangan Col and the Animal Pass. The route had been taken by a trekking team earlier but it did not visit Deo Tibba.
Negi was accompanied by Abhishek Matta from Nagpur, Anmol Tigga from Ranchi, Rakesh Kapoor from Bhuntar, Ravinder Negi from Raison and Neema Sherpa and Pemba Tamang — both from Barshaini.
Negi said they started from Jagatsukh on June 21 and undertook the trekking to the Norbu peak and then Deo Tibba. He said one of their team members had to return from Deo Tibba to Manali. They took the tough terrain and reached Tosh village in the Parbati Valley on June 30 by crossing Doangan Col and the Animal Pass. He said they also crossed Khiska Taj and Malana glaciers en route.
Dr Sameer Vaidya, associate, Himalayan Club, said it was a great achievement by the local youths to accomplish the task through tough terrain on their own.
He said the area between the Animal Pass and Doangan Col was not explored by anyone and was known as ‘blank on the map’ in the mountaineering terms. He said trekker Debabrata Mukherjee from West Bengal tried to connect the two high-altitude points and discover a new route in 2018. However, he was not successful due to excessive snow blizzards for three days continuously.
He said in May 2019, a team under the leadership of Mukherjee along with Biman Biswas, Partha Sarathi Moulik, Rahul Guha and Subratto Ghosh discovered the new route.
Vaidya said the Animal Pass is enriched with scenic beauty with a lot of peaks around, greenery, rivers, bio-diversity and adventure. He said a majestic view of the Indrasan peak, the Norbu peak and Deo Tibba could be witnessed from the Animal Pass.
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