ONGC Mission Everest team scales Mt. Satopanth successfully

ONGC’s Mission Everest team which has successfully summited the Mt. Satopanth (7075 Mtrs – 23011 Ft) was flagged-in by the Director (HR) Mr. D.D Misra, at IMF Auditorium, New Delhi on 8^th October 2016.

The Flag –in function was held in presence of President IMF, Col H.S Chauhan,  GM- Head Coordination, Mr. Manoj Barthwal, Mr. N. Mani and others officials of ONGC.

The month long Mt. Satopanth Expedition was launched on 11^th Sept 2016 from Delhi by Director (HR) and Director(Onshore) with their blessings for safe and successful completion of the mission. This being the maiden expedition of the Team Everest, a joint team was constituted including 7 experienced members from IMF and 19 climbing members from ONGC. In order to coordinate with the IMF, ONGC and the local agency Dr. Jagmohan Singh was nominated as the Team Leader.

Padam Shree, Mr. Loveraj Singh, Assistant Commandant, BSF, who is 5 times Everest Summiteer, was nominated as the Climbing Team Leader. He was supported with Sherpa team from Darjeeling, who were all Everesters. 19 member ONGCs team constituted employees from all work centers across all disciplines and included 3 girls and one Person with Artificial Leg.

The Expedition was conducted in 4 Phases:

Phase-1 – Journey by Road from Delhi to Gangotri, with night halts at Rishikesh and Uttarkashi.

Phase -2 – Approach March from Gangotri to Base Camp at Vasuki Taal (14500 Ft)  with staged acclimatization at Bhojwasa (12500 Ft) and Nandanvan (14000 Ft)
Phase – 3 – Camp 1 (16500 Ft) – Camp 2 (20000 Ft) – Summit attempts – Base Camp.
Phase – 4 – Base Camp – Chirwasa – Gangotri – Uttarkashi – Rishikesh – Delhi
During the entire expedition, the team experienced real life situations of mountaineering and learned to handle the unexpected situations arising in the mountains.

The team members were very well equipped with the special clothing and equipment’s specially procured through IMF keeping in mind the Mission Everest 2017.

Since the Everest Mission team had already undergone continuous rigorous training in the form of Adventure, Basic and Advance mountaineering courses at Manali, all were physically and mentally very tough to handle the natural rough conditions of the rocks, snow and Ice at the Mt Satopanth Expedition.

For the summit attempts since there was not enough space to establish summit camp the team was sub divided into 3 small groups with additional support of the Sherpa teams as part of the strategy. All the three groups successfully reached to the summit on 3 successive days on 30th Sept, 1st & 2nd Oct 2016.

The teams started their summit ascent at midnight 0000 Hrs and took average time of 9 hours to reach the top and approx. 5 hours to come to the Camp 2, making it approx. 12 – 14 hours climbing above 20000 Ft (6000 Mtrs) .

All the team members gained the altitude and faced the tough climatic conditions bravely and returned to the base camp without any injury and problems under the able guidance of the experienced Everesters.

Director (HR) applauded the team and the hard work of the team members. He appreciated the whole team and said that every one has lived up to his expectations. Mission Everest will be the most glorious chapter in ONGC’s history. This expedition will escalate the spirit of adventure in the whole organization and corporate sector. He also told the team members that they are the ambassadors of ONGC & once they accomplish the mission it will be their responsibility to invigorate others to indulge into such courageous and adventurous activities.

The sense of satisfaction and achievement on the faces of the members was clearly visible, which was also observed by the Director (HR), President – IMF and other senior officials during the Flag-in function.

Further the Team Everest would undergo winter conditioning camps in Dec 2016 – Jan 2017 before finally attempting for the Mt Everest in Apr – Jun 2017.