Lt Gen MMS Rai, Vice Chief of the Army Staff, flags off the Army’s Everest Massif Expedition to scale the Mount Everest and Mount Lhotse at South Block in New Delhi. A Tribune photo

Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 29

Led by a native of Jammu, Lt Col RS Jamwal, an avid climber, the Army’s Everest Massif Expedition to scale the Mount Everest and Mount Lhotse, was flagged off today by Lt Gen MMS Rai, Vice Chief of the Army Staff, at a ceremony held at South Block in New Delhi.The 30-member team, consisting of five officers, four junior commissioned officers and 21 other ranks, will attempt to summit world’s highest peak Mt Everest and world’s fourth highest peak Mt Lhotse. Lt Col RS Jamwal was also the team leader during last year’s Everest expedition when a strong 7.9-magnitude quake had struck Nepal and triggered avalanches in the Himalayan range on April 25.They were at the base camp when the quake had struck. Col Jamwal and other team members had survived the massive quake and had joined the rescue operations saving other climbers.The avalanche had struck the Everest Base Camp from Mount Pumori destroying camps of many expedition teams, killing 22 international climbers and local Sherpas and injuring more than 70.Jamwal belongs to Badhori village in the Bari-Brahmana area of Samba district.The expedition team will reach the Everest Base Camp on April 14 and will make summit attempts from May 16 to 30.Two members of the team would also be attempting the Everest- Lhotse traverse and five members would be participating in the Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon on May 29.On completion of the expedition the team will return to Delhi on June 10.