By IANS
New Delhi : Mountaineers from the Indian and Australian armies will jointly attempt to scale the 6,543 metre-high Mt. Shivling, that rises close to the snout of the Gangotri glacier in the Garhwal Himalayas.
Shivling’s twin peaks have earned it the sobriquet Matterhorn of the East.
Maj. Gen. V.K. Ahluwalia, the officiating director general of military training at Army Headquarters, flagged off the expedition here Wednesday.
The team is scheduled to leave Delhi for Uttarkashi Thursday and will reach Gangotri Friday.
After a treacherous four-day trek, it will arrive at the base camp on Sept 11. The team will establish three camps between the base camp and summit, which will be attempted between Sept 26 and Oct 1, a defence ministry statement said.
The team includes 18 climbing members and nine support members from the Indian Army and nine members from the Australian Army.
The expedition leader, Lt. Col. M.S. Chauhan, has climbed two 8,000-metre peaks, while Australian team leader Lt. Col. Mathew David Rogerson has also climbed a 8,000-metre peak and many 6,000-metre peaks.
Most of the Australian team members have recently undergone an acclimatization package at the Indian Army’s High Altitude Warfare School in Jammu and Kashmir.
An expedition of the paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) under Hukam Singh had made the first ascent of Shivling on June 3, 1974 when six climbers reached the summit.
British mountaineers Chris Bonnington and Jim Fortheringham first climbed the southwest summit in 1983.
An Indian Army first climbed the peak – from the west face – in 1984.
The last India-Australia mountaineering expedition was conducted in 1991 to Mt. Kedarnath.