Haryana couple takes love to great height - Mt Everest
May 20th, 2011 - 2:27 pm ICT by IANSKathmandu, May 20 (IANS) While the average couples plan families and buying a new car and house on bank loans, Sushma and Vikas Kaushik planned something unusual to take their love to great height - Mt Everest.
Sushma, a 27-year-old police woman from India’s Haryana state and her husband Vikas, 24, an MSc student, made both climbing and social history Friday by becoming the first Indian couple to climb together to the top of the world — the freezing, gale-smitten 8,848-metre summit of Mt Everest, the highest peak in the world.
After a surreal climb all through the night, the doughty pair reached the top at 10.25 a.m., accompanied by their two Nepali Sherpa guides, Lhakpa Nuru Sherpa and Tenzing Dorjee Sherpa, said Ang Tshering Sherpa, chief of Asian Trekking, the Kathmandu-based mountaineering agency that put the Kaushiks’ expedition together.
The feat comes as a surprising pat on the back for a state that has one of the highest records of the killing of the female foetus due to its strong preference for sons.
It was a day of triumph for India with four more climbers ascending the mountain as part of Asian Trekking’s Eco Everest Expedition 2011.
Three of them are from Haryana as well, proving the state’s grip on adventure sports. Sunita Singh Choken, 26, and also from Haryana, was the first member of the team to summit at 8.25 a.m.
She was followed by Premlata Agrawal, a 48-year-old housewife from Jharkhand who becomes the oldest Indian woman to accomplish the deed as well as the first woman from the Marwari community.
The other two summitteers, also from Haryana, are Pawan Grewal, 28, and Narinder Singh, 32.
The Eco Everest expeditions have been exceptionally lucky for the members. This month, Everest legend Apa Sherpa scaled Mt Everest for an incredible 21st time as part of the team, breaking his own earlier record of 20 summits.
Last year, Indian school boy Arjun Vajpai became the youngest Indian on top of Mt Everest as part of the same expedition.
A record 31 Indian climbers are attempting the peak this season, with 17 of them raising funds on their own.
Waiting for the Everest traffic to subside so that they have a stab at the summit as well is a 14-member Indian Air Force team that has eight women climbers.
(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)
- Indian eves dominate Everest run - May 12, 2011
- Indians among top Everest conquerors - Jul 15, 2011
- Indian Everest dreams soar to record high in 2011 - Feb 04, 2011
- First woman from India's northeast conquers Everest - May 11, 2011
- Haryana's youth lead the way to Everest - May 15, 2011
- Everest superstar eyes 20th summit - Mar 12, 2010
- 'Super Sherpa' hangs up Everest boots after 21st summit - May 27, 2011
- Mamata Banerjee gets towering gifts - from the Himalayas - May 21, 2011
- 'Super Sherpa' breaks Everest record with 21 summits - May 11, 2011
- After Arunachal, Orissa shows way to top of Mt Everest - May 18, 2011
- Indians rewriting Everest story - May 19, 2012
- Indian Air Force team conquers Mt Everest - May 21, 2011
- Third climber dies on Mt Everest - May 13, 2011
- Indian schoolboy rewrites history on the Himalayas - May 20, 2011
- Everest waits for Indian tricolour - May 09, 2011
Tags: apa sherpa, asian trekking, bank loans, buying a new car, choken, everest expedition, everest expeditions, grewal, haryana state, height mt everest, indian couple, metre summit, msc student, mt everest, narinder singh, nuru, old housewife, police woman, premlata, sushma