A SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE

Adventure/Extreme Sports

Mountaineering

Mountaineering

• What Is Mountaineering ?Mountaineering, also called mountain climbing, the sport of attaining, or attempting to attain, high points in mountainous regions, mainly for the pleasure of the climb. Although the term is often loosely applied to walking up low mountains that offer only moderate difficulties, it is more properly restricted to climbing in localities where the terrain and weather conditions present such hazards that, for safety, a certain amount of previous experience will be found necessary. For the untrained, mountaineering is a dangerous pastime.
• EQUIPMENT : Mountaineering differs from other outdoor sports in that nature alone provides the field of action—and just about all of the challenges—for the participant. Climbing mountains embodies the thrills produced by testing one’s courage, resourcefulness, cunning, strength, ability, and stamina to the utmost in a situation of inherent risk. Mountaineering, to a greater degree than other sports, is a group activity, with each member both supporting and supported by the group’s achievement at every stage. For most climbers, the pleasures of mountaineering lie not only in the “conquest” of a peak but also in the physical and spiritual satisfactions brought about through intense personal effort, ever-increasing proficiency, and contact with natural grandeur.
• Early attempts to ascend mountain peaks were inspired by other than sporting motives: to build altars or to see if spirits actually haunted once-forbidden heights, to get an overview of one’s own or a neighbouring countryside, or to make meteorological or geological observations. Before the modern era, history recorded few attempts to ascend mountain peaks for the mere sake of the accomplishment. During the 18th century a growing number of natural philosophers—the scientists of their day—began making field trips into the Alps of Europe to make scientific observations. The area around Chamonix, France, became a special attraction to those investigators because of the great glaciers on the Mont Blanc chain.

Making History..

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• Bachendri Pal, (born May 24, 1954, Nakuri, India), Indian mountaineer who in 1984 became the first Indian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• Pal was born into a rural working-class family in what is now Uttarakhand and was one of seven children. A gifted student, she encountered stiff opposition from her family and relatives when she decided to opt for a career as a professional mountaineer rather than as a schoolteacher. She soon found success in her chosen field, however. After summitting a number of smaller peaks, she was selected to join India’s first mixed-gender team to attempt an expedition to Mount Everest. Beginning its ascent in early May 1984, her team almost met disaster when an avalanche buried its camp, and more than half the group was forced to abandon the ascent because of injury or fatigue. Pal and the remainder of the team pressed on, and she reached the summit on May 23, 1984. Pal achieved immediate fame, and in 1985 she returned to Mount Everest to successfully lead an all-woman team to the summit. She led an all-woman rafting expedition down the Ganges River in 1994, covering over 1,500 miles (2,500 km). In 1997 she led an all-woman team on a successful 2,500-mile (4,000-km) transit of the Himalayas, beginning in Arunachal Pradesh and concluding at the Siachen Glacier. She was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian award, in 1984.

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