BENGALURU: “Had it not been for bad weather, they would all have survived and returned home safely,” said Karnataka Mountaineering Association (KMA) secretary S Srivatsa, expressing the shock of experienced mountaineers over the death of nine experienced trekkers from his group. . In Uttarakhand. The association's 22-member trekking team started the 35-km long trek from Uttarkashi on May 29, but nine of them lost their lives due to bad weather in Uttarakhand, while the 13 who survived were rescued in a coordinated operation. . Government of Uttarakhand and Karnataka.
"This tragedy happened only because of this deadly bad weather. They were all trained and experienced trackers. It was not a very difficult terrain either.This area was very accessible to any common man. Due to this extremely bad weather, they were caught and left with hypothermia. It was only because of this bad weather otherwise they all would have survived,” said Srivatsa.
Among those who lost their lives was 71-year-old Asha Sudhakar, who was a member of the KMA for more than three decades and was one of the oldest female trackers in the state. According to the KMA, she along with her husband S Sudhakar had earlier also Has gone on many treks, was the team leader of this trek.However, he survived this calamity.
"Age was not an issue. Asha was an experienced mountaineer and trekker. This team was a combination of mountaineers and trekkers. They were all experienced.In fact, Asha's husband was the team leader. Caught in bad weather, Srivatsa said, “Unfortunately she lost her life but her husband survived.”
The group included physically healthy, experienced trekkers in the age group of 34 to 71 years, he said. When the incident occurred, Srivatsa himself was at Everest Base Camp in Nepal and rushed to Dehradun to help in the rescue.
“I know each of them personally,” he said.They are all KMA members and I have done a lot of trekking with them in the past but during this trek, I was in Nepal."
“Mainly, before going on an expedition, there are two-three mandatory local treks as preparation for physical fitness. Apart from this, we meet every Saturday. As soon as I came to know about the event, I Reached Dehradun. He recalled, “I was with him in the hospital and consoling him.They were completely shocked, heartbroken and sad. Some of them sat with dead bodies for about 36 hours, it was depressing."
"When I interacted with them, they (trekkers) told how due to the heavy wind, their windcheaters, jackets and gloves were blowing and visibility was zero. So, they took shelter next to a big stone. But exhaustion, hypothermia And due to lack of adequate oxygen, four of them died and five others died later."They said they were unable to move, trapped in the blizzard and exhausted. They were carrying food, but could not eat because they were unable to open the tiffin box amid the strong winds."Later, in the lower From the camp, a guide and other climbers sent two more tents with sleeping bags and a cook managed to give them some hot water. With that help, (the rest) of them were saved. Otherwise, they too would have survived the collapse,'' he said.He recalled how he would often organize pre-monsoon and post-monsoon treks across India and neighboring countries like Nepal.
"We conducted three expeditions in Nepal and all of them were completed successfully. Two were Everest Base Camp and the other was Annapurna Base Camp trek. A camp was also organized in Manali for children aged 12-15 years in Uttarakhand. In the same area, two more camps were organized recently, which were completed successfully."The itinerary was from May 29 to May 8. They (trackers) left on May 29 and were supposed to reach Bengaluru on June 8," he said.
Talking about the incident, Srivatsa said that after reaching Uttarkashi, he set up a camp at Sahastra Tal. From there they went to a higher place, but while climbing down the weather turned bad.
On June 3, due to bad weather, they all took shelter on a big stone.He said, due to extreme cold and bad weather people went into hypothermia and four of them collapsed in the night and the next morning, some of them (trekkers) came down with the guide. "After the guide reached the nearest signal point , He called me on the evening of June 4 and with the help of the Secretary of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, we arranged the logistics for the rescue on June 5. So, both the Chief Secretary of Karnataka and the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand coordinated and helped us. of.
"We lost nine members, while 13 survived. All of them were rescued and brought to Dehradun hospital," he said.After treatment, he was kept in the state government guest house, where he was taken care of and sent to Bengaluru after the post-mortem.
When some of the survivors were contacted, they were still in shock and said they needed time to recover. “We are still in shock and have not been able to recover from what happened. We are grateful to the government for their efforts but, unfortunately, we have lost some of our friends in this tragedy.We need time to recover from this,” said one of the survivors. All nine bodies have arrived and have been handed over to their families for the last rites.
"This tragedy happened only because of this deadly bad weather. They were all trained and experienced trackers. It was not a very difficult terrain either.This area was very accessible to any common man. Due to this extremely bad weather, they were caught and left with hypothermia. It was only because of this bad weather otherwise they all would have survived,” said Srivatsa.
Among those who lost their lives was 71-year-old Asha Sudhakar, who was a member of the KMA for more than three decades and was one of the oldest female trackers in the state. According to the KMA, she along with her husband S Sudhakar had earlier also Has gone on many treks, was the team leader of this trek.However, he survived this calamity.
"Age was not an issue. Asha was an experienced mountaineer and trekker. This team was a combination of mountaineers and trekkers. They were all experienced.In fact, Asha's husband was the team leader. Caught in bad weather, Srivatsa said, “Unfortunately she lost her life but her husband survived.”
The group included physically healthy, experienced trekkers in the age group of 34 to 71 years, he said. When the incident occurred, Srivatsa himself was at Everest Base Camp in Nepal and rushed to Dehradun to help in the rescue.
“I know each of them personally,” he said.They are all KMA members and I have done a lot of trekking with them in the past but during this trek, I was in Nepal."
“Mainly, before going on an expedition, there are two-three mandatory local treks as preparation for physical fitness. Apart from this, we meet every Saturday. As soon as I came to know about the event, I Reached Dehradun. He recalled, “I was with him in the hospital and consoling him.They were completely shocked, heartbroken and sad. Some of them sat with dead bodies for about 36 hours, it was depressing."
"When I interacted with them, they (trekkers) told how due to the heavy wind, their windcheaters, jackets and gloves were blowing and visibility was zero. So, they took shelter next to a big stone. But exhaustion, hypothermia And due to lack of adequate oxygen, four of them died and five others died later."They said they were unable to move, trapped in the blizzard and exhausted. They were carrying food, but could not eat because they were unable to open the tiffin box amid the strong winds."Later, in the lower From the camp, a guide and other climbers sent two more tents with sleeping bags and a cook managed to give them some hot water. With that help, (the rest) of them were saved. Otherwise, they too would have survived the collapse,'' he said.He recalled how he would often organize pre-monsoon and post-monsoon treks across India and neighboring countries like Nepal.
"We conducted three expeditions in Nepal and all of them were completed successfully. Two were Everest Base Camp and the other was Annapurna Base Camp trek. A camp was also organized in Manali for children aged 12-15 years in Uttarakhand. In the same area, two more camps were organized recently, which were completed successfully."The itinerary was from May 29 to May 8. They (trackers) left on May 29 and were supposed to reach Bengaluru on June 8," he said.
Talking about the incident, Srivatsa said that after reaching Uttarkashi, he set up a camp at Sahastra Tal. From there they went to a higher place, but while climbing down the weather turned bad.
On June 3, due to bad weather, they all took shelter on a big stone.He said, due to extreme cold and bad weather people went into hypothermia and four of them collapsed in the night and the next morning, some of them (trekkers) came down with the guide. "After the guide reached the nearest signal point , He called me on the evening of June 4 and with the help of the Secretary of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, we arranged the logistics for the rescue on June 5. So, both the Chief Secretary of Karnataka and the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand coordinated and helped us. of.
"We lost nine members, while 13 survived. All of them were rescued and brought to Dehradun hospital," he said.After treatment, he was kept in the state government guest house, where he was taken care of and sent to Bengaluru after the post-mortem.
When some of the survivors were contacted, they were still in shock and said they needed time to recover. “We are still in shock and have not been able to recover from what happened. We are grateful to the government for their efforts but, unfortunately, we have lost some of our friends in this tragedy.We need time to recover from this,” said one of the survivors. All nine bodies have arrived and have been handed over to their families for the last rites.
