원정 개요

From www.indianexpress.com

Six-year-old Yashvardhan is happy to see his father, Sub-Inspector Chiranji Lal Mudgal, back home after 46 days. "My papa has scaled the world's highest peak, Mount Everest," Yashvardhan says proudly at his home but is unaware where Mount Everest is?

At the police quarters in Sector 26, the home of 37-year-old Sub-Inspector Mudgal, who has made Chandigarh Police proud by becoming the first policeman from the city to scale the Everest, guests are pouring in to greet the hero. The family is jubilant.

"We are proud of him. I was always sure that my husband has some special qualities and he has proved it by becoming the first police officer from Chandigarh to scale the world's highest peak," said Mudgal's wife Swati. Swati was injured along with her son in a road accident after Mudgal left for the expedition last month.

"But we never told him about the accident," said Swati said. A confident-looking Mudgal, originally a resident of village Jassia Rohtak, said that he had planned to scale Mount Everest in 2009 after paying obeisance at Kailaih Manasarovar. "And in 2010 I met Mamta Sodha of Haryana, who had scaled the highest peak, and I sought her guidance about the expedition. And later with the full support of my family, I decided to scale the Everest," he said.

In April this year Mudgal, who was posted as in-charge of police post 49, applied for leave and told his senior about his plans. "All my senior, including the IGP, wished me best of luck and I reached Kathmandu on April 4 for the forward journey," he recalled. On April 11 Mudgal reached the base camp, at a height of 5,400 m, where the trekkers are acclimatised about the harsh and windy weather.

"But at the base camp I had a severe cough and I was advised to go back to Kathmandu for treatment. And I decided to return back to Kathmandu where I was treated for a week," he said.

The Sub-Inspector, however, did not loose heart but when he informed his family back home about his returning back to Kathmandu, his mother-in-law insisted that he come back.

"But my wife gave me a lot of encouragement to scale the highest peak. And after a week's rest, I reached the base camp again on April 29. After staying there for three days, my three other companions - two Canadians and an Australian - left for camp I and we reached camp II on May 7. The weather was worsening. There were winds and the temperature was really chilling . Two of my companions could not move forward and returned back," he said.

"But we kept moving ahead and after reaching camp III and camp IV, on May 14 at 7.25 am, I was finally on top of the world highest peek. I hoisted the tricolour and the Chandigarh Police flag at Everest. For a few minutes I felt I was the tallest man in the world. It was a dream come true," said the SI.

After returning to the base camp, he first called his wife to give her the news. And simultaneously he sent a text message to the IGP, DIG and SSP of Chandigarh telling them that he had scaled the Everest.

"Respected Sir, this is SI Chiranji Lal Mudgal summitting mount Everest," he wrote in the message to his officer, who promptly greeted him. Mudgal reached the city on Friday and was given a warm welcome at the railway station and later at home.


Graham Austin (Australian summiter on 14 May) - 23 Feb 2012

When I made the summit shortly before sunrise on the 14th, I was with Nima Karma and a solo climber called Mike Hurst was on the summit. David and his Sherpa had left the summit just prior to me arriving and the rest of our IMG team was not far behind me.

There were no other climbers above Camp IV on the south side that day. I never met an Indian climber during my whole expedition.

The other Australian climbers I know about who made the summit were Sharon and Alan Cohrs who were on the summit about a week later.


March 2012 - Result of queries to IMG and Adventure Consultants

It is likely that Mudgal did not summit and his claim should be considered as false at this time.

Mudgal was not seen by the May 14 IMG summit team and they were the only ones high on the route at his supposed summit time (7:25 am). The only others on the route were two Alpine Ascents members who summited quite a bit a later (9:30 am).

The only person that saw an Indian was IMG's David Pastor who said the man was descending from C4 on May 13. the Indian told David that he had summited earlier that morning. David's comment was:

When we were going up from C3 to C4, just before I got to camp 4 I met an
Indian guy that was descending, he was very happy because he had summitted early
that morning. That's the only Indian I recall. He may be mistaken on the dates!

Mudgal was not seen by the May 13 IMG and Adventure Consultants summit teams. IMG had several members at or near the summit at his supposed summit time (7:25 am), while AC was much earlier in the morning (about 4 am). The AC lead Sherpa (Ang Dorje) did not see any Indians above C4 on May 13.

Two other members from the May 14 IMG summit team pointed out (from the news article) that the Indian only started climbing above BC in early May, thus would have summited with less that two weeks of acclimatization.