Unknown power helped me climb Mt Everest: Atul Karval

Ahmedabad, Jun 18 (UNI) Gujarat IPS officer Atul Karval, who climbed Mount Everest last month, today said an unknown power guided him throughout the climbing expedition.

''The first thing that came to my mind after 50 days of climbing and reaching Mt Everest peak was that I was God's blessed child. How many times did I come close to death? It was always there and we could see it. The most scary part was climbing Kumbhu, where one had to negotiate the snowfall and large open crevices that were thousands of feet deep,'' Mr Karval said while narrating his expedition experiences to newsmen here.

''We climbed Everest on May 22 but we started our expedition on April one from Kathmandu in Nepal. It took more than 50 days to reach at the top of the world's highest mountain peak,'' he said.

Mr Karval said ''The southern route to Everest is universally terrifying and the most dangerous part. The snowfall is like a bunch of ice flakes continually tumbling down the icy mountain wall. It is extremely dangerous and you only pray that you are not at the wrong place at the wrong time.'' ''This is the spot where most climbers have lost their lives.

While climbing, I found a body hanging near my ladder. It seemed it had been there for years, well preserved in extreme temperatures. A few feet ahead, there was one more body. The man was a climber who rested for a while and never got up. I saw a climber from Oman abandoned by his team as his oxygen had finished,'' the first IPS officer to scale Mt Everest said.

''When the body gives up and the mind becomes numb. Lurking death pushes you to the edge and you are sure there won't be a second chance. When the body gives up, it is with sheer willpower that one conquers pain and rises to the height of endurance and get to the top of the world,'' he added.

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