Giripremi set to restart climbing high-altitude peaks after a year’s gap due to Coronavirus pandemic

The expedition was originally scheduled for this time last year, but had to be postponed due to coronavirus. A four-member team, consisting of Umesh Zirpe, Bhushan Harshe, Sumeet Mandale and Jitendra Gaware would attempt to climb on the 8,091 metre high Mt Annapurna.

Giripremi, a leading mountaineering club in Pune, will be resuming its efforts to scale all the fourteen 8,000-plus mountain peaks in the world, with an expedition to Mt Annapurna later this month.

The expedition was originally scheduled for this time last year, but had to be postponed due to coronavirus. A four-member team, consisting of Umesh Zirpe, Bhushan Harshe, Sumeet Mandale and Jitendra Gaware would attempt to climb on the 8,091 metre high Mt Annapurna.

“After the enormous success of our expedition to Mt Everest in 2012, we had been constantly asked by people, what next? After Mt Everest Expedition, Giripremi envisioned to climb all 14 8000-metre plus mountains in the world. We are already halfway there. Our teams have reached the summit of seven 8000-meter mountains in last seven years. We have done Mt Everest in 2012, Mt Lhotse (the world’s fourth-highest mountain) in 2013, Mt Makalu (fifth highest) in 2014, Mt Cho Oyu (sixth-highest) and Mt Dhaulagiri (seventh highest) in 2016, Mt Manaslu (eighth highest) in 2017, and Kangchenjunga (third-highest) in 2019,” Zirpe said.

“Now we have an expedition to Annapurna I (tenth highest mountain) located in Nepal. The mountain stands tall with a height of 8091 meters and is known as one of the toughest mountains to climb across the globe,” he said.

Between 200 and 250 climbers have scaled Annapurna till date. But over 60 mountaineers have also lost their lives in their attempt to climb this mountain. Annapurna was the first 8,000-metre plus mountain to be successfully scaled. French climbers Morris Herzog and Lois Lachenal had made it to the summit on June 3, 1950.

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