First all-women Pune team scales ‘challenging’ Mt Sudarshan

An all-women team from Griripremi, Pune, conquered the challenging 6,529m Mt. Sudarshan peak in the Garhwal Himalayas in Uttarakhand on Wednesday.

The all-women team’s ‘P Cube-Mt. Sudarshan Expedition 2023’ was flagged off from Pune last month, and it summitted the peak at 12.45 p.m. on Wednesday where it unfurled the Tricolour and the Maharashtra flag.

Mt Sudarshan is located in the Gangotri region and is among the extremely challenging peaks, notorious for continuous rockfalls, avalanches and unpredictable weather conditions, complicated by the recent climate-related changes that plague the region.

The expedition leader, Smita Kariwadekar, was accompanied by her teammates Purva Shinde, Padmaja Dhanvi, Sneha Gude and Sneha Talwatkar during the gruelling ascent.

Veteran mountaineer and the mentor for the expedition, Umesh Zirpe, told IANS from Gangotri that the ascent of Mt Sudarshan is not only a physical and mental challenge, but also involves dealing deftly with the treacherous terrain, steep climbs, deadly crevasses and ever-changing weather that makes it a difficult ordeal.

“For many years, no one has attempted this route… We had taken a year to plan this and all the hard work and dedication of the all-women team has fructified today, with the successful conquest of Mt Sudarshan, after a rigorous 13-14 hours of continuous climbing,” Zirpe said.

Among those who contributed to the success included Akhil Katkar, Col. Anshuman Bhadoria, Maj. Deval Vajpayee, while Lale Thajil Poon, Munindar, Rana, and Gyalbo Sherpa also summitted along with the women's team. Others like Saurabh Kumar, Ankul, PCube Enterprises, Parimal and Pramod Chaudhari Foundation also helped in different ways.

The founder of Giripremi, Ushaprabha Page, proudly said that Wednesday's major achievement proved that “women can match men in mountaineering skills and excel in various fields”.