Nepal earthquake: Indian Army doesn't let you lose hope

Fear was in the air. The ground beneath their feet was shaking and the skies were literally raining death. The 35-member Indian Army Everest Expedition Team was at the Khumbu ice fall when the tremors in Nepal led to the first avalanche at Mount Everest. The base camp at 17,700 feet was safe but reports say at Camp I at 19,697 feet the devastation was massive.

Huge chunks of ice came cascading down gaining velocity and taking everything down with it. Visibility fell to near zero at high noon. The Indian Army Everest team at approximately 5,500 metres fell back to the base camp as soon as possible. But there was no rest. Major Ranvir Singh Jamwal, the young team leader who has scaled the Everest successfully twice immediately tasked the team doctor to help other mountaineers. The team, despite the rain, moved slowly but surely trying to reach out to those who needed help. This was an international effort with mountaineers from several countries and the brave Nepali Sherpas joined hands to salvage the situation. During the effort, 18 bodies of fellow foreign mountaineers who could not survive the avalanche were pulled out with the Indian Army retrieving 13 of the 19 bodies. But worse was in store. As mountaineers counted their losses and hoped for a better dawn at the holy Sagarmatha, fresh tremors led to another massive avalanche and this time at the Base camp.

"The news is not very good from the Everest,'' was the buzz at army headquarters on Sunday morning. While all was well with own boys, there were reports of major casualties both fatal and non fatal and the Everest. Several families were frantically calling friends at the army headquarters and friend's of friends in Nepal to hear the latest from the Everest. By afternoon, Maj Jamwal had been able to connect and passed on the "good news" - all of own boys were safe but there was massive loss of equipment in the base camp avalanche. While details are still awaited, the preliminary information that has filtered in indicates the Indian team, having done the avalanche survival course, benefitted from the knowledge and survived the second avalanche. They had taken due precautions and as soon as the first tremors were felt they moved to safety, urging many others to do so with them. However, the avalanche destroyed some of their their tents, food, fuel, mountaineering equipment. The damage assessment exercise was yet to be initiated. There was a bigger task at hand - several people trapped in the debris of the avalanche.

The army team joined in the relief effort. Despite the rain, repeated tremors, the team did not fall back, but spearheaded the rescue and relief operation. The team split in buddy pairs and trawled through the debris along with several other mountaineers and succeeded in rescuing 61 foreign mountaineers alive. There was a small window in which helicopters flew in and carried out emergency CASVAC (casualty evacuation). The army team, according to officials at the army headquarters, shared their depleted food and medicines stocks with fellow travellers of the Everest journey. The team did not fall back to safety and is continuing to carry out operations despite the inclement weather.

Meanwhile in Delhi the family of Ankur Bahl, a 54-year-old mountaineer from Gurgaon is in panic. Bahl and his team of mountaineers survived the avalanche at Camp I by the skin of their teeth. They were approaching Camp II when the avalanche struck. But no, Bahl and several other mountaineers are trapped at Camp II with just a couple days of food, medicines and batteries. His wife has been in touch with several mountaineers and the Army was able to establish contact with Bahl at Camp II but retrieving him will be a big challenge in the inclement weather especially when route that climbers take from the base camp and Camp I have been devastated in the avalanche. It is a race against time.

But the never say die team has refused to give up. They will try again. There is hope. There is god and a prayer on every lip. And tomorrow is another day.