MY NAME IS COURAGE

Six intrepid adventurer of the Silent Adventure Club of Jamshedpur, formed by the hearing challenged, took up the challenge of an Expedition to Mt. Rudugaria 19090 feet in Gangotri region of Garhwal Himalaya. They were successful in unfurling their Club's flag atop Mt. Rudugaria.

Their determination was apparent right from the start when the 6 of them viz Kajal Dey, J Choudhary, Santosh Singh, D Tiwary, Santosh Sahu & Ganesh Thakur having done their Basic Mountaineering Course, approached TSAF for organizing the Expedition, even willing to raise some of the finance required, which they eventually did.

They left Jamshedpur without fanfare, but with a quiet determination to give their best come what way. Necessary rations were packed from Uttarkashi & together with 3 TSAF instructors, 1 cook & 2 porters they left for Gangotri (10000 feet) on June 15. The next day the Expedition began in right earnest with load ferry to Transit Camp at 12200 feet, albeit under rain. The path was slippery & blocked by landslides, but sure footedly they reached the Camp after three and half hours. After pitching tent and unloading rations the party returned to Gangotri, while 1 instructor and 1 porter stayed back. On June 17 the rest of the load & team shifted to transit camp, in spite of the continuing rain.

The next day Base Camp was to be established, but it was decided that if weather improved everyone would shift to Base Camp otherwise only 3 of them would go. There was some cheer in the morning to observe that weather would improve as the day progressed. Energetically everything was packed and off they went negotiating the steep climb & established Base Camp at 14500 feet. The weather further improved in the night but unfortunately one of the members became sick, apparently unable to acclimatize with the rigors of the height. He had to stay back at Base Camp with a porter. After a brainstorming session that night, the next day's plan emerged - It was decided to open the route till 1 pm as the mountain was mostly covered with snow. Weather permitting, and the height gained, the team would set off for the Summit. On June 19th at 4 am, the team set off with great hope and excitement. There was one thing certain, that the climb was not going to be easy.

None of the hearing challenged members had reached up to that height before. But the mountain challenge was on. Starting out in a single file, the team slowly made progress up the mountain face. After some distance itself the uphill grind separated the members. TSAF Instructor Navinder Panwar was ahead opening the route followed by 3 members Santosh Singh, Tiwary & Santosh Sahu. Another TSAF Instructor Nirmal Pandey was in the middle with one member Kajal De, followed by yet another TSAF Instructor Pratim Bhowmick and 1 member J Choudhary. As they went higher the route became steeper and tougher. The soft snow made matters worse, with knee deep snow snapping the energy of the climbers. It was a classic case of humans stretching their limits to overcome nature's gigantic scheme of things. As the distance grew Navinder found himself alone with 3 members with him. At around 16500 feet Navinder cut across the snow field on the mountain face to catch the rocky ridge. Meanwhile, as per the plan, Navinder at 18000 feet took the final decision to go for the Summit, since he had made good progress in good time.

On the left side of the ridge was sheer drop of thousands of feet to the Gangotri Glacier, whose wide crevasses was yawning to devour the climbers. Struggling against the elements with Santosh Singh in tow, Navinder suddenly realized that the steep climb gave way to an easy walking gradient. And behold just a few distance more was the Summit. Encouraging Santosh Singh to quicken the pace, both of them finally stood atop Mt. Rudugaria along with the porter.

After a brief celebration and performing puja, the 3 of them retraced their steps downhill, not wanting to be caught on the mountain with bad weather. Slowly but surely they came down to where Nirmal was waiting with the other members and all of them together reached Base Camp at 6 pm. It was indeed a grueling climbing ordeal of 14 hours. Wanting to come down as quickly as possible, the very next day i.e. on June 20, the team returned to Gangotri Temple paying homage to the Deity Ganga for the success and safe return. Kajal De, who is also the leader of Silent Adventure Club, feels grateful to TSAF, whose continuous encouragement understanding and support is making the dreams of people like him come true and more importantly making them believe in themselves.