'The earth shook, setting off two avalanches’

DEHRADUN: Ankur Bahl, 54, went missing for two days soon after the April 25 earthquake in Nepal. He was stranded two nights at Camp II, at a height of 22,000 feet above sea level, while attempting to summit Everest for the first time. His anxious wife sent out tweets and messages on social media, and was flooded with offers of support and help. "The ministry of external affairs and the office of the President too reached out to help," Sangeeta Bahl says, recalling that ordeal and the kindness of strangers.

Her husband says it was a dream to scale Everest. He was training under the guidance of Garret Madison, seven-time Everester. "I started my expedition for Everest on April 4. At 12 in the day on April 25, when it was all clouded and visibility was poor, the earth shook violently and two pronounced avalanches of approximately two minutes, one from the Nuptse side and the other from Everest side devastated the entire ice-fall route, sweeping away tents and blowing away or burying our equipment and belongings. We were distraught to hear from the Sherpas that Nepal had been struck with a massive quake, and that 22 climbers had died, leading to the cancellation of the expedition."

He could talk to his wife, Sangeeta on the day of quake, but lost communication soon afterwards for two days.

"As a climber too, I could relate to the incident. But I went crazy, not being able to hear from him for two days," the wife said.

Behl, a Delhi-based entrepreneur, was in Dehradun over the weekend to spend time with his son, a student of Doon School.

"I feel lucky to be alive and blessed in many ways. I was stuck at Camp II, and not at the base camp. The avalanche struck during the day - had it happened at night, many might have died in their sleep. Being trapped at 22,000 ft two nights in a row could create chaos and aggravate any health problems. One young American doctor got swept away with her tent in the avalanche. All the rest in our team returned safe," Bahl said.

Bahl spent his boyhood in Dalhousie. As a student at Doon School, he said he took part in one 18-km trek from Gangotri to Gomukh, and that was perhaps the time he was bitten by the mountaineering bug the first time.

"My mountaineering journey with my wife started with the ascent of Mt Kilimanjaro, 19,340 feet above sea, which I attempted three years ago when I turned 51. I had wanted to do that climb on turning 50, but a slip disk delayed it. After that, I decided to attempt to scale all the seven tallest peaks in the different continents. My wife and I made it to Mt Aconcagua in Argentina, the tallest peak outside of Asia. That climb we did separately, as she bore serious knee injury. In 2013, we climbed Mt Elbrus, near Russia's border with Georgia. We did Mt Vinson near the base of the Antarctic peninsula in January 2014 and Denali or Mt McKinley, the highest peak in North America, in June 2014," Bahl said.

"It is fitness, not age, which matters most for a mountaineer," Bahl says, adding that unfortunately, many mountaineering training schools will not even accept candidates above 40 years old. That must change, Bahl says, adding that with this attempt aborted, he will put off achieving his dream of standing atop Everest until next year.R

 

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Resource: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/The-earth-shook-setting-off-two-avalanches/articleshow/47141804.cms