FROM BOTTOM TO THE TOP

Akriti Jamwal. Updated: 1/24/2018 2:37:47 PM We the Women

Stanzlin Laskit, Tashi Laskit, Tsering Angmo and Rigzen Dolker

Out of 31 awardees announced for State Award in 2017, 9 were women among who 3 belonged to Jammu region, 2 to Kashmir but what took the cake away was inclusion of 4 girls from Ladakh. While the women from both Jammu and Kashmir were quite visible in the media of the state, Stanzlin Laskit, Tashi Laskit, Rigzen Dolker and Tsering Angmo barely got their fair share of appreciation, love and respect that the truly deserve. Who are they? What made them get enlisted in the list of State Awardees 2017? Let’s find out.
Stanzlin Laskit, Tashi Laskit, Tsering Angmo and Rigzen Dolker are young mountaineers who brought glory to our state, back in 2016. And after being honoured with the State Award, it took almost a year for me to find them, get in touch and therefore I feel elated to bring about their journey which is exceptional, right from the starting line.
All of them were the part of the first-ever all girls expedition of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) that scaled the highest peak of the world, the Everest. It is unbelievable that at that point of time their ages were ranging from 18 to 22 only.
These four girls made it through every test and hurdle and summit the highest mountain in the world. The expedition succeeded in two consecutive days as two batches comprising of five girls each, scaled the peak on May 21 at 11:00 am and May 22 at 07:40 am. The expedition comprised of cadets namely- Rigzen Dolker, Tashi Laskit, Trishala Gurung, Staniz Laskit, Pooja Mehra, Baljeet Kaur, Lalrint Luangi, Tsering Angmo, Sulaxchana Tamang and Kumari Nutan. The state awards to these girls not only honored their achievement but also brought on the map of the state, the region they come from.
To give you just an idea of how difficult this expedition is and how huge of an accomplishment it is to summit the peak, here's some stats: Height at the peak is 8,848 meters (29,029 feet). Beyond 8,000 meters (approximately 26,000 feet) is Mount Everest’s “death zone” because it is the low-oxygen area above the last camp and before the summit where conditions become increasingly harsh.
The treachery of the Mt. Everest can be drawn by the fact that 19 people died in one year—1996, the deadliest ever on Mount Everest during a trek. A climber can die within 30 minutes after contracting hypothermia on Mount Everest, depending on how fast his or her body temperature drops. Around 5000 people have climbed Mount Everest since Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953 and lives of more than 200 climbers have been claimed on the peak’s treacherous slopes. Lately 6 people died on the mountain in 2012.
This was also remarkable because only 10 girls were selected from all over the India for the expedition, considering that, 4 being from our state, should make us more proud. Here’s how Rigzen Dolker described the whole process of getting selected and training as well as her journey to the highest point of the world:
“When I got selected for mountaineering, I thought that it might be for just another mountaineering camp for some NCC cadets. It was while training for basic course of mountaineering I learnt that it was for expedition to summit Mt. Everest. At that point I assumed that I would not get selected as the competition was high, so there was no point to make up my mind that I want to climb the highest peak of the world.
From all over the India 100 NCC female cadets got selected from each state. Among all those 1000s of cadets from India, only 100 cadets were selected for basic training in Darjeeling Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI), which was specially provided in cold of mid January to February. Only 40 female cadets got through and were selected for pre-advance expedition in Manali. Mt. Deo Tibba 6001 m-19688 ft. was successfully summitted by the team in the month of May and June.
Then we again got a pre-expedition in which 20 girls cadet got selected in the month of August -October. It was one of the tricky one for girls because it is believed that the peak doesn’t accept any woman. It was Mt. Trishul 17120 m-23360 ft, which is located in Uttrakhand. This expedition was more challenging than any of the expedition before; due to bad condition of weather couple of cadets got chilblain and frostbites, due to which team could not summit the peak. Although, unfortunately we could not summit the peak but it ingrained in us more respect for the altitude and taught us several lessons.
Then finally Siachen Glacier training was given to last final 10 girls NCC cadet, at the Indian Army's Siachen Battle School, in the month of mid January. I was one among them; it was unbelievable because I never thought that I would make it till the end. Yet I gave my best at every point of that more than year long training and selection phase; all of us gave our best results. In month of March all those final 10 cadets were given for a month not only physical but mental training as well.
In April 2016, the team moved to Nepal. And we started our journey of trekking from Jiri to base camp to Mt. Everest. Including the acclimatisation and trekking time, it took us 52 days to summit the world’s highest peak. Finally on 21st and 22nd team summitted the peak successfully. The team was lead by Col. Gaurav Karki and Major Depika Rathore who were with us for their 2nd Everest expedition.


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