KATHMANDU, May 5: Kalpana Maharjan, 35, is said to have reached Camp 2 (7,775 meters above sea level) on the northern side of Mount Everest on Saturday. If Maharjan succeeds to reach the peak of the world's highest mountain, it will be her second success in climbing the mountain in her third attempt.
This attempt, unlike her previous two attempts, is also an attempt for setting a world record for being the first female journalist of Nepal to climb Mount Everest from both the northern route and the southeastern ridge. Maharjan had climbed Mount Everest from the southeast ridge in Nepal in April 2018.
“I first got the opportunity to learn about Everest expedition in a program while working as a journalist,” she told Republica, “I failed in my first attempt in 2014, when I managed to reach only upto 6400 meters above the sea level.”
Keeping the tradition alive
She added that this time around she is also campaigning against child marriage and has carried two flags with her to set on the peak of Everest. One of them belongs to the Lalitpur Metropolitan City (LMC) which is hoisting a flag in respect of historian Satya Mohan Joshi, who is turning 100 this year.
The metropolis has recognized Joshi as the Century Personality of the metropolis and is contributing Rs 3 million for Maharjan's expedition. The other flag belongs to Budhanilkantha School, which is an alma mater of Kalpana's expedition organizer Rabindra Maharjan.
Rabindra, who is also the Managing Director of Experience Outdoors Nepal, said that the expense of this expedition is far more than the expense from the southeast ridge in Nepal.
He claimed that the expedition from the south costs as much as Rs 3.5 million while the one from the northern side in China costs as much as Rs five million.
“In comparison to the southeastern ridge, the northern side is considered to be the easier route to the peak of Everest,” Rabindra said, “The snow in the south side shift about five feet every day while there is no shift in the snow in the northern side.”
However, the northern side does have the disadvantage of strong winds that have velocity as high as 100 kilometers per hour.
