Thriller conquest of Mt. Kanchenjunga now in unique book form

Pune, Oct 14 (IANS) The Pune-based Giripremi -- which created history when its 10 climbers unfurled the National Tricolour on a single day, May 15, 2019 on Mt. Kanchenjunga, the world's third highest peak -- has brought out the enthralling experience in a colourful book form.

The book in Marathi, "Shikhararatna Kanchenjunga" -- described as a journey of emotions, courage, perseverance, adventure -- was released by industrialist and Haware Group Chairman, Dr. Suresh Haware, himself an avid mountaineer -- on Thursday evening.

The remarkable aspect is it is an untried experiment of writing a book in Marathi literature on "the same subject and the same expedition, but from two different perspectives" -- the first by the Team Leader Umesh Zirpe and other from the summiteer Bhushan Harshe, both witnessing the same set of emotions from their own angles.

"Harshe and I have been working together for nearly two decades, and understand each other deeply. We both could well imagine what the other was thinking in a particular situation. It helped us write the book, threading the story together from each other's viewpoints without any repetition," Zirpe said.

Lauding the efforts, Dr. Haware said the book can be an excellent example of documenting the thrills and travails of the high-flying adventure besides focussing on the kind of planning and management that goes to make such expeditions successful.

Harshe said he wrote a daily diary for a newspaper during the expedition, and most of it is now part of the book, while Zirpe highlighted how each expedition is different from others with new challenges unfolding at every step, requiring detailed planning and management.

"We decided to cobble together our respective viewpoints on the same journey and the idea was readily supported by Rohan Publications, to inspire others," the duo added.

Present at the release of the pictorial book were the Giripremi Founder-President Ushaprabha Page, 79, and herself a veteran mountaineer, Anand Palande, Vivek Shivade, Jitendra Gaware, Ashish Mane, Krishna Dhokale, Padmaja Dhanvi, Pradeep Champanerkar of Rohan Publications and other adventure lovers.

Earlier, Giripremi had created a record for an Indian civilian expedition when eight of its members unfurled the National Tricolour on Mt. Everest on a single day, May 19, 2012.

Zirpe said that the proceeds from the sale of "Shikhararatna Kanchenjunga" would go towards funding future expeditions of Giripremi.

Among the premier mountaineering clubs in India for over three decades, it has 11 Mt. Everest and 10 Mt. Kanchenjunga summitteers, and two went on to win the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Award, besides expeditions to many other 8000-metre-plus peaks and other mountaineering activities.