NCC Girls Mountaineering Expedition
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, May 02 2016: The National Cadet Corps (NCC) Girls Expedition to Mount Everest which was flagged-off by Union Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh on Mar ch 9, 2016 reached the base camp of Everest in Nepal on April 21, according to a statement issued by PIB Defence Imphal.

The team led by Col Gaurav Karki had reached Kathmandu on March 31.The team consisting ten girls are scheduled to summit the peak between May 15 and May 25 .

NCC Girls Mountaineering Expedition

The statement added that, the team trained hard for the Mt Everest Mission.

Pre-Everest Expedition to Mt Deo-Tibba (19688 ft), near Manali in Himachal Pradesh was conducted for 40 cadets in April-May 2015.Based on their performance, 15 cadets were selected for the next phase.

In August 2015, the team set off on the second Pre-Everest Expedition to Mt Trishul (23360 ft), and helped in selecting 10 cadets for Everest Expedition.

These ten girls thereafter did a month long winter training in Siachen Glacier.

The aim of mountaineering expeditions in NCC is to strengthen the character and instil qualities of courage, comradeship, discipline and leadership in the cadets.

NCC has always been in the forefront in adventure activities.

The first mountaineering course for NCC cadets was conducted for 42 days at Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI), Darjeeling in 1961.Every year, NCC sponsors 354 boy and girl cadets for basic mountaineering courses at HMI, Darjeeling, NIM Uttarkashi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS), Manali and JIM & WS Pahalgam.

Mountaineering Expedition as an adventure activity was introduced in NCC in 1970.Since then, NCC conducts two mountaineering expeditions every year, one each for boy and girl cadets thus having launched more than 70 expeditions to various peaks, added the statement.