Striving to Touch the sky with glory a 20 member Indian Air Force mountaineering team was flagged off by the Air Officer-in-charge-Administration Air Marshal JN Burma today, to scale Mt Everest.
It is the first time in the history of IAF that women in Blue have embarked on an expedition to scale the highest peak on earth. The idea was conceived in early 2009, since then there have been consistent efforts. The team underwent a rigorous training schedule including Basic Mountaineering Course and Winter Training Camps at Siachen in 2010 and 2011. They went on to scale progressively higher and tougher Himalayan peaks in the past two year starting with Mt Stok Kangri (6121M) in Leh, Mt Bhagirathi II (6512M) in Uttarkhand, Mt Kamet (7757M) in Garhwal and Mt Saser Kangri I (7672M) in Landhakh.
The team consists of 11 women officers who will be accompanied by one doctor and eight other male air warriors who are qualified mountaineers. The team will be following the southeast ridge route as was used by Hillary and Tenzing in the first successful expedition to Mt Everest in 1953. The route involves technical challenges such as famous Khumbu icefall which is extremely volatile and keeps shifting, innumerous crevasses and ceracs.
Apart from creating precedence in the field of adventure activities by IAF women officers, this endeavor is also a milestone in women empowerment.
Amongst the other dignitaries to attend the ceremony were Air Mshl N Verma, Air Cmde GK Patnaik, Air Cmde M Singh, Gp Capt R Chandola, Col Sanjeev Soni and Cdr KS Rawat who wished safety and success to the team with a message, Do well, the nation is looking up to you
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