1996 Mount Everest Disaster - Indo-Tibetan Border Police

Indo-Tibetan Border Police

Less well known are the other three fatalities of the day, who were the climbers from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police North Col expedition from India. The expedition was led by Commandant (equiv to Lieutenant Colonel) Mohinder Singh, and is credited as being the first Indian ascent of Everest from the North side.

On May 10, 1996, Subedar (eqv. to Sergeant) Tsewang Samanla, Lance Naik (equivalent to Lance Corporal) Dorje Morup and Head Constable Tsewang Paljor were part of a six man summit attempt from the North Side. Being a traditional type of expedition, the summit team did not have any Sherpas to guide them in their ascent. They were the first team of the season to go up the North Face. It would be their responsibility to fix the ropes during ascent and break the trail to the top, a task that has its own share of difficulties. The team was caught in the blizzard above Camp IV. While three of the six members turned down, Samanla, Paljor and Morup decided to go for the summit. Samanla was an accomplished mountaineer who had summitted Everest in 1984 and Kanchenjunga in 1991.

At around 6:00 pm (3:45 pm Nepal Time), the three climbers radioed to their expedition leader that they had arrived at the summit. While the Indian camp was jubilant in their celebrations, some of the other mountaineers at base camp had already expressed their reservations about the timing, which was quite late in the day to be on the summit. There is also a dispute whether the three had actually reached the summit. Krakauer claims that the climbers were at 8,700 m (28,550 ft), roughly 150 m (500 ft) short of the topmost point. This is based on the interview given by a later Japanese team to Richard Cowpens of the London Financial Express. Due to bad visibility and thick clouds which obscured the summit, the climbers believed they had reached the top. This also explains why the climbers did not run into the teams that summitted from the South Side.

The three climbers left an offering of prayer flags, katas and pitons. Samanla, the summit team leader, decided to spend extra time for religious ceremonies and instructed the other two climbers to begin their descent. There was no radio contact after that. Back at the camps below, anxious team members saw two headlamps moving just above the second step (8,570 m/28,120 ft). None of the three managed to come back to high camp at 8,320 m (27,300 ft).