Indian Army team unload jerry cans from chopper - Everest expedition, in Delhi

From the archive record

The Indian Army Mount Everest Expedition was flagged off by the Chief of the Army Staff on 1st March 2001 at New Delhi. It was led by Col. Krishan Kumar. After flagging off, the team moved to Nepal and after a long trek from Jiri, reached Base Camp of Everest on 3rd April 2001. The mighty mountain ranges of the Himalayas have, over the centuries, inspired not only man's imagination and spiritual quest, but also his spirit of adventure. Mount Everest, the tallest of the peaks of the Himalayas as also the whole world, stood in its unattainable isolation for thousands of years, till Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary conquered it in 1953. Since then, at least a thousand climbers have set foot on it. That at least 200 have lost their lives while trying to scale the peak speaks of the infinite d