10 Polish climbers are all set to summit Nanda Devi East/ Sunanda Devi (7434m), located in the state of Uttarakhand, India. Proceeding from the Advanced Base Camp, the team is now supposed to lead towards the summit of this eastern peak of Nanda Devi (7816m) in the Kumaun Himalayas. As per the updates received yesterday, they were at ABC awaiting for a favourable weather.
"Having been through a trying time with an extremely harsh airstream and snowfall for last few days, they are now eyeing on the summit push. 'Predictably, this much-anticipated weather window is going to remain for next 6 days.", says Anindya Mukherjee, who previously summitted the peak in 2014 and is the official organizer of this 80th Anniversary Expedition. Last week, Rivu Das has been appointed as the Liaison officer of this team.
Current team members are Rafał Fronia, Dariusz Załuski, Wojtek Flaczyński, Bartłomiej Szeliga, Jan Lenczowski, Marcin Gałus, Stanisław Pisarek, Filip Babicz, Oswald Rodrigo Pereira under the Leadership of Jarosław "Jarek" Gawrysiak.
“It is a very special expedition for us because, 80 years ago in 1939, another Polish team made the very first ascent to Nanda Devi East. That was also the first Himalayan expedition by any Polish team ever. So, that is very important for us and we will try to do the same this time.", said JarosÅ‚aw Gawrysiak.
The team has been further subdivided into three teams for the summit push. The first team comprises Jarek, Rafal, Jan, Wojtek, and Filip; second team - Dariusz and Oswald; alongside the third team - Stanisław, Marcin and Bartłomiej.
"As the first team intends go on to establishing the summit camp at 6900m, they are considered to be supported by the later two. Once they successfully reach atop the peak, the other two are expected to follow their lead en route to the summit bid," said Anindya Mukherjee.
The route till Camp-2 (6300m) was already open, fixed, and stocked up last week. However, unfavourable weather had previously forced the team to descend back to the Base Camp (4250m) on 17th June. Heavy snowfall, that started since the same day, is now fortunately stopped.
Nanda Devi East Base Camp (Photo Courtesy: Anindya Mukherjee)
