A team from Jamshedpur’s Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF), including Everester and Padma Bhushan awardee Bachendri Pal, reached three peaks successfully in an arduous journey from Uttarakhand to Himachal Pradesh, making the trek the country’s first.

Apart from Pal, the team comprised 11 thrill-seekers as well as a group from the steel city-based adventure outfit. The members hail from Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Indore and Jaipur.

Named as the Triple Pass Challenge, the adventure kicked off on October 9, and ended on October 29 spanning across three peaks and the same number of weeks.

In normal cases, trekkers stick to reach just one pass, but for the first time the expedition was organised to cover three high-altitude passes in a go.

The team wrested Darwa Pass (13,500 ft), Bali Pass (16,200 ft) and Borasu Pass (17,300 ft) -- all in Uttarakhand.

Besides Pal, other Everesters included Hemant Gupta, R.S. Pal and Poonam Rawat as well as highly experienced instructors Mohan Rawat, Dharmendra and Randev.

A TSAF official said that the trek was well-planned keeping adjustments and difficulty levels in mind. “Covid-related safety measures were adopted. All the participants were tested before joining the journey and all standard government guidelines were followed during the expedition,” he said.

The team started from Sangamchatti in Uttarkashi on October 12, then crossed dense forest of pine and rhododendron and the mystique Dodital lake. It crossed Darwa Pass on October 14 before starting the downhill climb till Hanuman Chatti.

The TSAF team poses at the base camp in Uttarakhand Telegraph Picture

However, this did not keep the members from starting to prepare for the next challenge to climb the Bali Pass on October 17. With several exposed sections on the way, the journey was not easy. But with help from the TSAF team, every member successfully passed the sections and finally reached the Bali Pass on October 20, after navigating through steep, rocky areas. The team also crossed a glacier and trekked through an exposed ridge till Odari, which is situated at an altitude of 14,000 feet. The morning at Odari on October 21 was one of the coldest nights in the expedition.

The journey to Borasu Pass started on October 23. A rarely visited location, much information about the pass was not available to the trekkers beforehand. However, walking through some difficult crevasse and rocky terrain, the team finally reached the pass on October 27. Shortly, the team started the arduous downhill journey which proved to be difficult, especially crossing the never-ending moraine field . The team walked even after sunset. Finally, the members camped in an abandoned ITBP camp near Chitkul in Himachal. On October 28, the members reached Chitkul – the destination.