ITBP team to ski down Everest

To mark its golden jubilee year, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police hopes to create a world record of sorts by sending a team of experienced mountaineers to ski down Mount Everest in the coming months. The ITBP Mountaineering and Skiing Expedition was flagged off by Delhi’s Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna here on Friday.

ITBP Director-General Ranjit Sinha showing world-class equipment to Delhi’s Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna at the flagging-off ceremony of the skiing expedition to Everest at ITBP headquarters in New Delhi on Friday. Expedition leader Commandant Prem Singh looks on. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

World-class equipment and clothing has been procured by the ITBP for the expedition, including special helmet video mounted cameras to record the process of skiing down.

The ITBP was constituted in 1962 and began mountaineering in 1964. Its mountaineers have held records of scaling Mount Everest six times. Its skiers have skied down from peaks like Mt. Kamet (25,447 feet), Mt. Abigamin (24,130 ft) and Mt. Stoke Kangri (20,077 ft) in the past.