Sikkim mountaineer in IMF’s all Women Expedition to Mt. Menthosa

Gangtok, 22 July: Shanti Rai of Sikkim was Deputy Leader of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation’s all-women expedition to the 21,989 feet high Mount Menthosa in Lahual Spiti, Himachal Pradesh. Interestingly, this could very well be the first successful ascent of the mountain. The first summit is credited to a British Service Team led by Capt. S. Bembrose in 1970, there is no record the summit.
The IMF expedition, which returned to Delhi on 19 July, was sponsored by the Ministry of Sports & Youth Affairs and had Tine Mena of Arunachal Pradesh as team leader.
Shanti Rai, it is informed, reached the summit first at 11.12 a.m. on 11 July with the second party reaching at 11.30 and the last party at 12.03pm. Of the 11 expedition members, only 7 members successfully summited the peak.
“We started our summit journey at 1.30am early morning on 11th July from summit camp (18700ft). It was very technical route to our summit approach. Gradients on route were 80 to 85 degrees. We didn't take any medical support or communication throughout the expedition. By God’s grace, all the members came back safely to base camp on 12th July 2014,” Ms. Rai shares.
This, she adds, is the best record ever in Indian mountaineering history with the minimum time taken to summit the peak - in six days from base camp to base camp.