Our story 7 Reasons Not to Climb Mt. Everest
made mention of “Green Boots,” a deceased climber whose body marked the
path to the summit of the world’s highest mountain. His name is Tsewang
Paljor, a 28-year-old member of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. He was
selected, along with Tsewang Smanla, and Dorje Morup, to be the first
Indians to reach the top of Mt. Everest from its north face in May of
1996. It was not to be. The three climbers radioed their expedition
leader, Harbhajan Singh on May 10 that they had reached the summit, but
they were caught in the infamous blizzard of ’96 on the way down, and
all three perished on the mountain. Rachel Nuwer set out to learn more
about Paljor, to know him as more than just a pair of green boots.
A
quiet middle child with five siblings, Paljor was known in the village
for his polite, compassionate manner. He had a big heart and natural
kindness. Though good-looking, even as a teen Paljor never had a
girlfriend – he was simply too shy. He once told his brother that he was
more interested in dedicating his life to something bigger than himself
than in getting married.
As the eldest son, Paljor no doubt
felt pressured to provide for his family, which was struggling to make
ends meet at their modest farm. So after completing 10th grade, he quit
school and tried out for the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), whose
sprawling campus was located in nearby Leh, Ladakh’s dusty capital.
Formed in 1962 in response to increasing hostilities from China, the men
who serve in that armed force specialise in high altitude landscapes – a
necessity given that India’s border with its domineering neighbour
stretches across the Himalayas. To Paljor and his family’s delight, he
made the cut.
The article at BBC Future follows Paljor on his quest to summit Everest, and the story of what went wrong on the mountain almost twenty years ago.
Part two of the series deals with what happened to Paljor’s body and the other 200 or so corpses still on Mt. Everest.
No comments:
Post a Comment