It is a moment to cheer as two Bangladeshis- Tawhid Hossain and me
climbed 24682 ft high Mt. Annapurna IV and set our national flag up
there. It is a Himalayan peak ever climbed by any Bangladeshi.

It was North Alpine Club Bangladesh's (NACB) second stride to the
Everest as NACB's final target is to climb Everest within 2010.

Annapurna IV news and story in the newspaper:

The Daily Star: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=93071

The Daily Prothom Alo:
http://www.eprothomalo.com/index.php?opt=view&page=24&date=2009-06-21

Chhutir Dine/The Daily Prothom Alo:
http://www.prothom-alo.com/fcat.news.details.php?issuedate=2009-07-04&fid=MQ==&n\
id=NDEzODM=

It was 11:54am Nepalese time on June 14. We achieved a feat many
compatriots dreamt of. We conquered the Mt Annapurna IV, a Himalayan
peak at the height of 24,682ft, as first Bangladeshis without
supplementary oxygen after tremendous hardship.

We were accompanied by Nepalese climber Sarin Prakash Pradhan. We all
three are members of the North Alpine Club Bangladesh (NACB).

There was shivering cold with 2-3 degrees Celsius, mighty wind,
continuous snowfall and whiteout. And there were chances of falling
from knife-edged ridge into crevasse and avalanches, the height and
the acute mountain sickness. But teamwork was the key factor that beat
all odds.

Sherpa Sardar Som Bahadur Tamang, Ganesh Magar and two-time Everest
climber Sherpa Kailash Tamang were in the lead to set the route from
camps one and two to the summit. High altitude cook Tashi Tamang and
porter Sardar Dawa Tamang were the next great help in achieving the
feat.

A support team of 22 porters, two cooks and three sherpas had started
the journey from Kathmandu on May 29, the day that commemorates Edmund
Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's climbing the Mt Everest. The team reached
the Annapurna IV base camp at 15,091ft height on June 03.

The three NACB members reached the base camp on June 08.

The sherpas established camp one at a height of 17,716 ft on June 06
and camp two at a height of 21,817ft on June 08. After resting on June
09, the NACB team moved for camp one on June 11. Having a training on
climbing rock and ice the team reached camp two the next day.

It was approximately 2:30am on June 14 when the final ascent to the
top of Annapurna IV started. The six-member team moved with headlamps
and full climbing gears. But the team got stuck halfway from camp two
to the summit as all of a sudden a 6ft crevasse gaped ahead of them.

The sherpas had to open a new route. Climbers had nothing to do but
wait for around two hours, standing on an ice wall of 60 degrees
gradient and braving snowfall with strong wind.

Finally, group leader me, Tawhid Hossain and Sarin Prakash Pradhan
reached the summit of Annapurna IV at a height of 24,682ft without
supplementary oxygen. They flew the Bangladesh national flag as a new
history for Bangladesh was recorded.

Another group of NACB, consisting of Dhrubo Jyoti Ghosh Mukul, MH
Jaiedi Tusher, Abdul Halim, Munira Farzana Tania and Sk Badruddin
Omar, finished the amazing Annapurna Circuit trek that started on May
29.

The NACB team is supposed to reach Kathmandu on June 20 and Dhaka on June 25.

Navana Group was the title sponsor for the NACB's endeavour. Mattra,
Summit Group, Kohinoor Chemicals, and Destiny Group co-sponsored the
trekking while Channel i was its media partner. Incitaa Tourism and
Muktinath Holiday's Pvt Ltd were the event partners.

Through our endeavor we are trying to establish a positive picture for
the youth of Bangladesh such as- if any youth wants to do something
positive, s/he will achieve it one day if passion for it is genuine.

We are also doing this adventure and other activities to cheer up
youths with two slogans: `Youth Unity against AIDS & Drugs' and `Youth
Unity for Eco Mountain & Hill Livelihood'.

And we do believe that if we want to attract the youth from doing the
bad things like taking drugs which is also a gateway to AIDS, we need
to open up some opportunities for them so that they do not intend to
cling to drugs.

We want to set the opportunities open for all youths to climb Everest
and through creating a momentum inside the country to climb it.




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Musa Ibrahim

Reporter and Writer
Sub Editor, News Desk, The Daily Star (http://www.thedailystar.net/)
General Secretary: Center for Educational Research & Services (CERS),
Bangladesh.
Founder & General Secretary: North Alpine Club Bangladesh - NACB
(http://www.northalpineclub.org/)
Editor: Ovijaatree, NACB's Monthly Newsletter & Spokesman of
Bangladeshi Explorers
e-mail : musa.ibrahim@...
Tel: +880 1711 181 370, +880 1552 631 928
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