West Sikkim avalanche kills two mountaineers

IAF chopper to make second evacuation attempt today, bodies yet to be recovered


Gangtok, October 21: The death toll in the avalanche incident of Monday afternoon in West Sikkim reached to two with authorities confirming the death of a Mumbai mountaineer and other unidentified climber even as efforts to evacuate the other injured climbers by Indian Air Force proved futile after 72 hours since the mishap occurred.

District Collector (West) S Pradhan told media that the first deceased was identified as Mangesh Despande, the team leader of the four member Mumbai expedition team that had successfully scaled the 6010 m Mt Thingchinkhang peak in West Sikkim on Monday.

The team accompanied by two Sherpas was descending down to their base camp at Thangshing when an avalanche hit them at an altitude of 5400 m on Monday afternoon.
While Despande was blown away by the avalanche, one more member of the team succumbed to his injuries, it is informed. However, details are yet to filter in the site which is very remote and without any communications network and the identity of the second deceased is not yet informed to us, said the District Collector.
Tourism stakeholders here engaged in the rescue and evacuation efforts informed that the body of Despande is visible to the rescue team but could not be recovered due to bad weather conditions.

A rescue team had reached the site yesterday evening and had brought down the surviving members of the expedition team to Thangshing where two choppers from the Indian Air Force were supposed to land and airlift them to Gangtok or Siliguri for medical treatment.

The choppers had flown today morning from the Bagdogra airport in Siliguri but could not land at Thangshing due to bad weather conditions. It is informed that the surviving members including one Sherpa who sustained serious injuries in the incident are being manually brought down to Tsoka where arrangements are made for transferring them to the nearest hospital.

The choppers which returned back to their base will again make an attempt to land at Thangshing tomorrow morning while that the recovery team will try to bring back the bodies from the incident site to the landing site.

As per the information received late in the afternoon, the rescue team have sighted the body of Despande locked in a snow field while the body of the second unidentified person is trapped in a crevasse. It could either be a Mumbai climber or a porter but confirmed details are yet to come to the authorities here and in West Sikkim.

Meanwhile, a two member special team from Sonam Gyasto Mountaineering Institute here, Kunzang Gyatso and Bishnu Tamang reached Yuksom today on a chopper and will be assisting the team engaged in recovering the bodies from the avalanche site.

A team of four mountaineers from Mumbai had scaled Mt. Thingchinkhang on Monday and were hit by an avalanche while returning down to their base camp in the same afternoon.

A porter had rushed down from the base camp to the nearest habitat to inform about the incident and the authorities with active support of Travel Agents Association of Sikkim had scrambled a rescue-relief team and dispatched them to the incident spot yesterday morning.

According to forest officials posted in west side of Khangchendzonga National Park at Yuksom, a team of five mountaineers-Mangesh Despande, Anju Paniculam, Sadasivan Sekar, Shantanu Pandit and Parag Pendharkar- from Mumbai had passed through their check post on October 12 on their way to the peak. They had a permit pass till October 24 and were accompanied by five porters and one liaison officer from the State Home department.

It is informed that Anju Paniculam stayed back at the base camp due to ill health and the other four climbers went ahead with the ascent along with some members of the support team. They successfully scaled Mt. Thingchinkhang and had ascended down some 500 m when an avalanche hit them, killing Despande and injuring others.


Source: sikkim express