At 6400 metres en route to Mount Everest, little did they know what was in store for them on Saturday. In a flash, the weather turned rough, they could feel earth trembling and had to curtail the trek till the weather clears.
“I was sitting on a chair in our kitchen tent at Everest Base Camp (EBC - 5300 metres). All of sudden, it started shaking and grew bigger even before I realised it was an earthquake. I rushed out of the tent and saw a huge rock fall on ridge beside base camp. Luckily, it did not affect the Base Camp. Once the weather settled, I communicated with the Advanced Base Camp (ABC - 6400 metres) over radio and enquired about the team. They confirmed, they were safe,” said Shekhar Babu Bachinepally, a mountaineer from Nalgonda district and recipient of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award in a message to The Hindu.
The team replied to Mr. Sekhar Babu that they had also experienced multiple tremors at ABC. Thirty five-year-old Shekhar Babu, who has the experience of climbing Mt. Everest three times, is leading an expedition team which includes four sherpas and three international mountaineers. A young software engineer, Bharath Kumar from Kurnool is also in the team.
The team had reached Kathmandu on April 6 and started off after offering prayers at the famous Pashupathinath Temple and Lama. They acclimatised at Nylam and Tingri and reached the Mt. Everest Base Camp. The trek is expected to be completed by June 25.
A puja was conducted as is customary for all the teams intending to attempt to scale the summit of Mt. Everest. The team commenced the trek and reached Advance Base Camp (6400mt) at 3 p.m. on April 24. But much will depend on the weather as experts expect another earthquake in the next 48 hrs and the team is geared-up for the same and is safe, said Mr. Shekhar Babu. Transcend Adventures representatives informed that the temperature was hovering at – (minus) 19 degree Celsius and heavy snowfall was reported.
