With successfully scaling the Mt Vinson in Antarctica, Col Ranveer Jamwal has become the first Indian Army officer to climb the highest mountains of all seven continents.
“Summitted the highest mountain of Antarctica, Mount Vinson on January 4. Feeling honoured to climb the highest mountains of all the seven continents,” said Col Jamwal.
He was a part of 9 members team. Only six could manage to climb.
“We started our journey from Union glacier on January 1. Twin otter planes dropped us at Vinson base camp on the same day and then we established our base camp, low camp & then Summit camp (which is also called high camp). We started our summit camp on January 4,” said the Army officer.
“Though the wind was very strong and temperature falling below -37 degrees even then we did not loose our way finally and finally summitted at 5pm on the same day,” he added.
Earlier, the Army officer had climbed Mt Everest(Highest mountain in the World & Asia), the highest mountain of Africa (Mt Killimanjaro), Australia (Mt Carstenesz Pyramid), Europe(Mt Elbrus), South America(Mt Aconcagua) and North America(Mt Denali).
It is pertinent to mention here that Col Jamwal has the distinction of climbing Mount Everest thrice.
He has completed over 30 expeditions across six continents.
He is the only person in India to lead back to back three Everest Expeditions. A total of 51 climbers have climbed Everest under his dynamic leadership.
In 2015, under his leadership, a rescue team had done an exceptional job by saving lives of 60 climbers, stuck in earthquake at Everest base camp in Nepal.
He was also awarded with the Highest Adventure Award of India-- Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award which is equivalent to Arjuna award.
He has won seven awards from the Army, including the prestigious Vishisht Seva Medal twice.
Col Jamwal also received the Jammu and Kashmir’s highest award “sher-e-Kashmir” award for outstanding sportsperson.
He was declared the best mountaineer of India by Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) in 2017 and was awarded the IMF Gold Medal duly recognising his feats. Hmmm
