Giripremi’s mountaineers successfully achieve Mt. Manda-1 from North Ridge
On 18 September 2021, Giripremi’s Dr. Sumeet Mandale, Vivek Shivade and Pawan Hadole along with Mingam Sherpa and Nim Dorje Sherpa wrote a new chapter in the history of Indian mountaineering as they scaled Mt. Manda-1, a 6510 meter tall mountain. It was the first ever successful expedition on Mt. Manda-1 from India and only second successful expedition after the Japanese expedition in 1984 from the North Ridge Route. The expedition was led by Anand Mali and mentored by Umesh Zirpe, a veteran mountaineer of Giripremi.
Mt. Manda-1 is one of the three peaks of the Manda group located in Kedar Ganga Valley. It is one of the most challenging peaks in the Indian Himalaya and has witnessed seldom climbing expeditions. Giripremi teams had tried climbing the mountain in 1989 and 1991 but couldn’t reach the summit. After a long wait of 32 years Giripremi’s younger generation of mountaineers managed to scale the mountain after battling the challenges like rockfalls, hard ice and snow coupled with crevasses and steep climb of 70 to 80 degrees above the altitude of 5000 meters altitude.
The team reached the summit via the North ridge route which is considered as a knife edge route where climbing gets difficult due to the narrow corniced ridge at the top and steep slopes running down in the valley. Giripremi’s team showed exemplary skills to tackle the challenges to summit the peak after more than three decades.
Umesh Zirpe, the mentor of the team, said, “Mt. Manda-1 is a challenging mountain. It challenges the mountaineer on different levels. Reaching the summit of Mt. Manda-1 marks the historic moment in Indian mountaineering history as the first successful ascent from this difficult North Ridge.”
Along with Mt. Manda-1, Giripremi’s team consisting of Anand Mali, Varun Bhagwat, Ruturaj Agawane, Ankit Sohoni and Rohan Desai climbed Mt. Bhrigu Parvat (6041 M) on September 13, 2021. Coincidently, the first successful ascent on Bhrigu Parvat was also by Giripremi team 30 years ago. Both the expeditions were successful due to the exceptional logistic support provided by White Magic Ltd.
