Army to launch Mount Everest expedition

New Delhi, Feb 14: An Army team will attempt to counquer Mount Everest in April from the North, considered the most difficult direction.

The 20-member team will be led by Lt Col I S Thapa of the Maratha Light Infantry.

The expedition, the fourth by the Army, would be flagged off in the second half of March, an official release here today said.

The final selection for the 20 members, of which 14 will be summiteers and six support staff, was carried out after a training session at Siachen.

The last expedition was an all-women expedition sucessfully completed in 2005.

The other two expeditions were launched successfully in 2001 and 2003.

For the current expedition, 80 personnel volunteered. From them, 45 were selected to undergo advanced mountaineering course at Western Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Manali. Thereafter the team carried out training by scaling Mount Bhagirthi-II (6510 M) and Mount Mana(7273 M) in the Garhwal region. Finally, 20 were selected after the training session at Siachen.

UNI