A joint team of Nepalese and Bangladeshi mountaineers have scaled a virgin peak in Nepal’s eastern Himalayas, the climbers said Monday.
The 10-member team said it summited Mount Chekigo, considered one of the most challenging in mountaineering, on October 18.
Abdul Mohit, leader of the Bangladeshi team, said he was happy to have been part of an expedition that conquered the difficult peak for the first time.
“Thirteen expeditions from different parts of the world have attempted the peak before us but failed,” Mohit said. “It’s a very tough climb, the most difficult I have experienced because of its deep crevasses and knife ridges.” Chekigo rises 6,257 metres above sea level in the Guri Shanker Himalayan range.
“I have climbed Mount Everest 10 times, but this was the most difficult peak to climb in my mountaineering experience,” expedition leader Pemba Dorjee Sherpa said.
“I could see Chekigo from my window when I was growing up in my village in the lap of the mountain, and it was always a dream to conquer it,” he said.
The Nepal Mountaineering Association said some objectives of the joint expedition was to promote Nepal tourism and to encourage Bangladeshi mountaineers and trekkers to visit Nepal. The mountain has been christened Nepal-Bangladesh Friendship Peak.
“I used to read about Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hilary’s Everest expedition in school, and climbing a mountain was a dream I grew up with while I lived so close to the sea,” Mohit said, referring to the first summiteers of the world’s tallest peak.
