Mt. Annapurna: Piyali Basak scales 10th highest mountain in the world

KOLKATA: Mountaineer Piyali Basak from Chandannagar in Hooghly has again made Bengal proud by successfully scaling Mt. Annapurna on Monday morning.

Aged 35, Piyali along with Sherpa Dawanuru from Nepal completed the summit successfully at 8.25 am. Annapurna (8091m) is the tenth highest mountain in the world.

Basak scripted history in May last year by becoming the first Indian woman to have climbed Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen. “I have been extremely anxious since April 15 as she (Piyali) had told me of completing her expedition on that date. I was constantly praying to God for her safety and in the morning, the news of her scaling the peak was communicated to me by the agency under whose banner she made the expedition. She was expecting to scale the mountain without oxygen and had started without it, but the weather was so hostile that she had to use oxygen,” Piyali’s mother Swapna Basak said.

“Piyali and Dawanuru have shown exceptional mountaineering skills and a deep understanding of the mountain’s risks and challenges. They have set an inspiring example of teamwork, discipline, and trust in each other’s abilities,” a Facebook post from Pioneer Adventure, under whose banner Piyali did the expedition, read.

The West Bengal Swarojgar Corporation Limited under the state Self Help Group and Self Employment department had handed over Rs 2 lakh to extend support to Piyali. Her next target is to scale Makalu (8481m), the fifth highest mountain in the world, without oxygen. In 2021, she had scripted history by scaling the dangerous peak Dhaulagiri (8167 m) without supplemental oxygen.

She happens to be the youngest mountaineer in the world and the first from India to climb both the Seven Summits as well as Seven Volcanic Summits.

Piyali, who is a teacher of Kanailal Primary School, has scaled a number of peaks earlier, including Mt. Tinchenkang (6010m), a peak in Sikkim Himalaya, Manaslu also known as Kutang that happens to be the eighth highest mountain in the world at 8,163 metre. She had also attempted Mt. Everest expedition in 2019 but inclement weather conditions forced her to return with still 400m to climb.