I was too tired to bring exhausted Ranaghat climber down: Sherpa
Times of India | 19 May 2025
123 Kolkata: The Sherpa who accompanied Ranaghat climber Subrata Ghosh during his Everest summit said he did not lose sight of him but was too tired to carry the disoriented Ghosh down and had to finally abandon him. The Sherpa too was suffering from hallucinations when he returned to the camp and took more than two days to revive.Ghosh's Sherpa, Palchen Tamang, who suffered frostbite, came down to the Everest Base Camp on Saturday. Bodhraj Bhandari, managing director of Snowy Horizon Treks in Kathmandu, spoke at length with the Sherpa at night. "They started quite late on Wednesday (May 14), around 10 pm. Ghosh was walking slowly and took a lot of time to reach the summit. There was a strong wind after 11 am on Thursday, and that delayed their ascent further.Ghosh was overexcited to make it to the summit and would not listen to his Sherpa. After they made it to the summit, Ghosh was suddenly feeling low on energy," said Bhandari."When they were approaching the Hillary Step area (a 40-foot vertical rock on the southeast ridge of Everest) while descending, Ghosh suddenly said that he couldn't see anything and he would not move. He sat there on the spot. This is a typical symptom of altitude sickness, especially when the climber is suffering from a low oxygen level. The Sherpa started to convince him to move. They were in the death zone for nearly 16 hours then, and the oxygen reserve was going very low. The Sherpas can withstand such low levels of oxygen, but it is difficult for others," said Bhandari.According to Soumen Sarkar, the climber from Bardhaman who also made it to the summit on the same day, it was windy since morning. "I reached the summit at 6.45 am on Thursday (May 15). It was so windy that we could not even stand for more than 15 minutes. The wind speed increased as the day progressed," he said.When Ghosh gave up and sat there, Tamang decided to help him climb down further. "It took nearly four hours for him to bring him down by 100 meters. But the Sherpa was also getting exhausted, and he sat down with Ghosh. He stayed back with him for the next four hours trying to get him down. But that did not help any further. It was dark, and the Sherpa was all alone with Ghosh somewhere near the Hillary Step. At one point, he gave up. His oxygen level was also low, and he started climbing down without any supplementary oxygen. The sun was almost out when he reached Camp IV the next day," Bhandari said."It is essential for a climber to understand that one has to forego the summit attempt. I faced a similar situation on Mount Indrasan (Himachal Pradesh) and Batian Peak in Mount Kenya," said Satyarup Siddhanta, Everest Summiteer and Guinness Record Holder.