EXPEDITION REPORT
NAME OF THE PEAK :-
Mt. Koa Rong II ( 6187 Mt. / 20298 Ft.)
AREA : Lahul Region,
Himachal Pradesh
TOTAL PERIOD :- 15.08.2018
– 05.09.2018
MEMBERS : (i)
Netai Mondal ( Leader) (ii) Sanjoy Bhowmick (iii) Sangramie Samanta (iv)
Champak Sourav Das (v) Amiya Mitra (vi) Subrata Banerjee (vii) Arghyadip Singha
(viii) Partha Pratim Biswas (ix) Kamal Adhya (x) Rakesh Dolui (xi) Dipankar
Ghosh (xii) Yashanka Midya.
Apart
from 12 Expedition members there were more 13 members who were the part of the
Trekking team. Both the Expedition team and trekking team marched together.
SUMMITERS :- Total
10 team members along with 2 Sherpas successfully summitted the peak. Name of
the summiters are :
(i)Netai
Mondal (ii) Sanjay Bhowmick (iii) Sangramie Samanta (iv) Amiya Mitra (v)
Arghyadip Singha (vi) Partha Pratim Biswas (vii) Kamal Adhya (viii) Yashanka
Midya (ix) Sumit Das (x) Bitan Chandra
Sumit
Das and Bitan Chandra were the part of the trekking team. But judging their
performance they were selected for the summit march and both of them
successfully summitted the peak.
TIME LINE OF THE EXPEDITION:-
15th August, 2018
An advance team consisted of 6 members
headed for New Delhi by Poorva Express from Howrah railway station in the
morning. Main team consisted of 19 members left for Chandigarh from Howrah
Railway Station, West Bengal by Kalka Mail.
16th August, 2018
Advance
team reached New Delhi Station early in the morning and took Delhi-Manali bus
in the Evening. The main team was on
train on that day.
17th August, 2018
Advance team reached Manali in the
moring. A lot of work like Bus booking from Manali to Patseo, collecting
of Kerosene Oil, marketing of vegetables
etc. were done by the advance team on that very day. The main team reached
Chandigarh early in the morning and left for Manali by Car. The team reached
Manali in the evening on the same day.
18th August, 2018
Team stayed at Manali for hiring of
equipment and for final packing of load.
19th August, 2018
Team
left for Patseo early in the morning by bus and reached Patseo ( 12300 ft./
3750 Mt.), via Keylong in the afternoon. Night Stay at Patseo.
20th August, 2018
At 8.40 A.M. trek was started from
Patseo. We could manage only 10 mules for load ferry upto Base Camp. But it was
not possible to carry the huge load in one ferry, so the mule men decided to
give double ferry in a day. The route was through loose boulder and land slide
zone. Keeping the river on our right, we marched for transit camp. We established
our transit camp at 11.46 A.M. at the height of 13440 ft/ 4096 Mt. There is
plenty of place for tent pitching in the transit camp area. River Water is the
only source of drinking water here. Koa
Rong II is clearly visible from the transit camp.
21st August, 2018
We started for Base camp at 8.12 A.M.
First 45 minutes the path was slight up and down and mixture of boulder and grassy field. River was on our
right. We crossed the river at 13900 ft. After that there was continuous ascent
for almost one and half hour. Then we descended down the river bed and reached
Base Camp at an altitude of 14800 ft./ 4510 mt. At 11.50 A.M. Base Camp was
established by the side of Panchi Tal. We used both the water of Panchi Tal and
Stream water for drinking. Base camp is a vast grassy field. Koa Rong II is
clearly visible from the Base Camp.
22nd August, 2018
Rest at Base Camp.
23rd August, 2018
Load ferry was started at 7.15
A.M. from Base Camp to Camp 1. 18
members took part in the load ferry. The trail was through boulder and dead
moraine zone. Weather was slightly gloomy. The entire route was continuous
ascent. After crossing 5 humps, we reached camp 1 by 10.40 A.M. We found 2 liters
of Kerosene on the way. Height of Camp 1 was 16300 ft/ 4968 Mt. 3-4 four-men
tent can be easily pitched at camp 1. Just below the camp 1 there is a Tal,
full of fresh water. This is the source of drinking water in Camp 1. Tent can
be pitched by the side of Tal also. Pervious Expediton team had left almost 15
liters of Kerosene oil in Camp 1.Dumping our load at camp 1 all the members
except 2 Sherpas descended down the Base Camp. Sherpas Stayed at Camp 1 for
next day’s recky toward Camp 2 (summit camp)
24th August, 2018
At 8.36 A.M, 12 team members started
from Base camp to occupy camp 1. We reached camp 1 at 11.32 A.M. weather was
fully dull. Snowfall was continuing for hours. Two Sherpas descended down from
the upper camp in the afternoon and informed us that they had identified the
spot for Camp 2 (summit camp) and fixed ropes in the Col.
25th August, 2018
At 10 A.M., 10 members along with the
2 Sherpas started for Camp 2. Two members stayed at Camp 1 for future support.
The day was sunny with charming weather. The entire route was glacier marching.
First we gradually started steep climbing through glacier and then moved on
through gradual slope. All the members were marching in rope up condition and
with snow boot and crampon. It was impossible to move through the middle of the
glacier because of excessive number of open crevases. We followed right end of
the glacier and moving on by the side of rocky wall. Several times we left the
glacier to negotiate crevase and were compelled to move through rock patch. We
established camp 2 (summit camp) at the height of 17800 ft/ 5425 Mt. at 1.15
P.M in a small , rocky ,semi-flat area. There was place for hardly 2-3 three or
four men tent in the camp 2. It would take almost 45 minutes to reach base of
the col from Camp 2. The Col and the Koa Rong II Peak are clearly visible from
the camp 2 (summit camp). Previous day during recky, the sherpas found kerosene
in camp 2 also. Thats why we did not carry any kerosene from Camp 1 to Camp 2.
26th August,2018 (summit day)
At 1.30 A.M. in the night all the 10
members along with the 2 Sherpas started for summit march. Before dawn we
climbed up the col. Weather was getting bad to worse time by time. In the high
chilled wind and white out, we continued jumaring in fixed rope. The sherpas
had fixed 2 coil of polypoplin rope, each of which was 220 meters in length and
two foreign ropes in different places from Col to summit. Crossing the Col we
marched through a vast ice field, full of
hidden crevases. We had to negotiate a rocky face to reach the
south-West face of Koa Rong II. Rock Piton is necessary for safe fixing of rope
here. Lastly, we reached the South-West face of Koa rong II. This was the last
part towards summit and we had to climb a steep ice face by Jumaring in fixed
rope. Ultimately all the 10 members along with 2 Sherpas reached the top of Mt. Koa rong II at an altitude of 6187 Mt. at
11.30 A.M. Because of worst weather condition and white out, the surrounding
view from the summit was not clear. Koa Rong III was visible just opposite of
Koa Rong II. At a far distance Deotibba and Mt. Indrasan were also visible. We
took photographs on the top and performed puja. After spending 40 minutes on
the summit, we started descending at 12.10 P.M. Descending the Col was
difficult because of so many open crevases. The Sherpas decided not to descend
through Col , rather they fiexed rope on
the rocky face adjacent to the col and we descended down with the help of fixed
rope. But there was difficulty at the base because there were number of
crevases at the base area and we had to negotiate the crevases in many ways.
Later we realised that this rocky face could be followed during climb up
instead of Col. Summit camp might be
pitched at the upper end of this rocky face because there was also a small
camping ground, enough for pitching two small tents. There we found traces of
camp of any pervious expedition team. Ultimately, we reached camp 2 at 7.02
P.M. That day we stayed at camp 2 (Summit camp).
27th August, 2018
We descended down to base camp
directly and reached base camp at 2.30 P.M.
28th August, 2018
Stayed
at Base Camp for repacking.
29th August,2018
Descended to Patseo directly for Base
camp.
30th August, 2018
Patseo to Manali by Bus.
31St August -2nd
September, 2018
Stayed at Manali.
3rd September, 2018
Manali to Chandigarh by Car.
4th September,2018
Kalka Mail from Chandigarh railway
station at 12.28 A.M.
5th September,2018
The team reached Howrah Station safely
in the morning.
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