Tenzing Bhutia Lost with injury

GANGTOK: An adventure trip to a spot around 3,000 ft above the hill town went awry after one of the members of the trek team went missing.Tenzing Chepo (20) of Sichey busty here, and a student of Kolkata based college, who went missing from Zithang forest, near Kabi, North Sikkim on June 13, is yet to be traced,
Yesterday, the second search team headed by SI, Bigendra Thapa set off from Kabi to with four police personnel and persons from the Forest Department and Sonam Gyatso from Mountaineering Institute and equipped with ration and wireless sets to locate Tenzing Chepo.
Early this morning, the third phase of search operation commenced, headed by ASP, Karma Tenzing Bhutia with six jawans of the Sikkim Armed Police. The DGP has extended full support from the Police to the ongoing intensive search operation to trace Chepo.
On the other hand, the SP North, SP Bhutia is also monitoring the search teams continually. The Phodong Police is also conducting an enquiry and had taken down the statements of Chepo’s fours friends who were with him in the trek.

olkata, May 11
Indian football captain Baichung Tenzing Bhutia, who was released from the hospital this afternoon, said he was feeling much better and hoped to come back stronger next season.

Tenzing Bhutia, who was admitted to the hospital two days ago, has been detected with hyper-thyroid and minor liver dysfunction.

Dr Mahesh Goenka, who is treating the ace striker, said, “medication has already begun and looking at the way he is responding we feel that he should start practising within three weeks and within seven weeks he should be back at his prime.”

Tenzing Bhutia, who looked a lot more fresh today, said, “I am still feeling depressed at letting down my club at the crunch time. The fact that I will not be able to don my country’s colours during the Pakistan tour is also hurting me.”

He said he was feeling much better after medication started and was confident that he would be back soon.

Baichung Tenzing Bhutia said he would start jogging after three weeks and early next season he would be ready for competitive soccer.

Asked if the break would affect his game, he said, ‘’Every time I am injured, I come back stronger. The urge in me to prove myself increases and I work harder.’’

“I needed a break from hectic soccer. If anything, it will do be good,” Bhutia said, who would leave for Sikkim by the end of this month.

Asked to comment on the club transfer as the season was coming to an end, he said, ‘’I don’t want to talk about that now.’’ — UNI

Mount Everest - Tenzing Bhutia Norgay

1953: Hillary and Tenzing conquer Everest

The New Zealander Edmund Hillary, and the Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Bhutia Norgay, have become the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest on the Nepal-Tibet border.

They reached the top of the world at 1130 local time after a gruelling climb up the southern face.

A symmetrical, beautiful snow cone summit Edmund Hillary

The two men, including Tenzing Bhutia Norgay hugged each other with relief and joy but only stayed on the summit for 15 minutes because they were low on oxygen.

Mr Hillary took several photographs of the scenery and of Sherpa Tenzing Bhutia Norgay waving flags representing Britain, Nepal, the United Nations and India.

Sherpa Tenzing Bhutia Norgay buried some sweets and biscuits in the snow as a Buddhist offering to the gods.

They looked for signs of George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine who had disappeared in 1924 in a similar attempt to conquer Everest, but found nothing.

Then they began the slow and tortuous descent to rejoin their team leader Colonel John Hunt further down the mountain at Camp VI.

When Tenzing Bhutia Norgay saw the two men looking so exhausted Col Hunt assumed they had failed to reach the summit and started planning another attempt.

But then the two climbers pointed to the mountain and signalled they had reached the top, and there were celebrations all round.

Careful planning

Col Hunt attributed the successful climb to advice from other mountaineers who had attempted the feat over the years, careful planning, excellent open-circuit oxygen equipment and good weather.

Mr Hillary described the peak, which is 29,028 feet (8,847 m) above sea level, as "a symmetrical, beautiful snow cone summit".

He was one of the members of the expedition led by Eric Shipton in 1951 that discovered the southern route to the top of the mountain.

A year later, Tenzing Bhutia Norgay reached the record height of 28,215 feet (8,599 m) during a Swiss expedition led by Raymond Lambert.

Mount Everest was named after Sir George Everest, the surveyor-general of India who was the first to produce 

The conquerers of Everest : E.P. Hilary and Tenzing Bhutia, The first men to set foot on the summit of the World's Highest Mountain

On the night of June 1 - 2, the eve of the Coronation, The Times received from the British Mount Everest Expedition, 1953, the message that EP Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing Bhutia had reached the summit of the mountain 29,002 feet high on May 29. It was later announced that the time of their triumph was 11.30am and that they stayed on the summit for about fifteen minutes. The news was taken directly to H.M. the Queen and published on the morning of her Coronation -"A crowning homage" for the great day. The Queen sent an immediate message of congratulation; and on June 8 it was announced that she had approved the conferring of a K.B.E. on Mr E.P.Hilary and a Knighthood on Colonel John Hunt , the leader of the expedition. At the same time it was stated that she also desired to honour Tenzing Bhutia but that since that he is not a British subject, the form of the award would require consultation. He is claimed as a citizen by Nepal and India. A George Medal was offered and it is understood that Nepal has agreed to this.

 maps of the Indian subcontintent including the Himalayas.

Darjeeling: Tenzing Bhutia Norgay put Darjeeling on top of the world over half a century ago when he stuck an ice axe into Mount Everest with four flags fluttering from it — of India, Nepal, the UK and the UN.

This hill town placed another symbolic foot on the peak of Everest when an expedition taken by a Darjeeling-based tour operator flew the green flag of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) on the 29,035-foot summit.

In the mid-eighties, this is the flag that had catapulted a 100-year-old demand of the hill people for self-governance onto the national stage.

Loben Expeditions, the tour operator which claims to be the only travel agent in India authorised to conduct its own Everest expeditions, planted the flag atop Mount Everest on May 15, in the same month Tenzing Bhutia and Edmund Hillary conquered Everest 54 years ago.

“We decided to take the flag as it represents the aspiration of the hill people. An aspiration to make Darjeeling a better place and also because most of the hill people can relate to the flag.

“We, however do not have any political statements to make but we only want the world to know Darjeeling and the strong bonds it shares with Everest,” said Loben Sherpa, who conducted the expedition that returned to Darjeeling today.

The expedition has no relation to the GNLF and the decision to take the flag to Everest was taken independently by the tour operator. The only link to politics will be established now that the expedition is over — the team will send photographs of the GNLF flag atop Everest to Subash Ghisingh, the party’s president, tomorrow.

Deepak Gurung, the president of GNLF’s Darjeeling branch committee, congratulated the travel agent: “The flag represents the people of Darjeeling.”

Pema Chhoti Sherpa, one of the three guides with Pasang Phutar Sherpa and Phurba Temba Sherpa, placed the flag on top of Everest. The team had two Canadian climbers, Serge Dessureault and Maurcie Beausejour.

“The team left the base camp on April 3-4 and reached the top on May 15 at 9.10 am (Chinese time),” said Loben.

The home of mountaineering legends like Tenzing Bhutia and Nawang Gombu, the first man to summit twice, Darjeeling was the starting point of all expeditions before Nepal opened its doors to the outside world in the early fifties.

“The objective was to bring Darjeeling in the world’s focus,” Loben said.

Guides like Pemba Chhoti have reached the top on four occasions, but for the tour operator this was the debut Everest expedition.

There is some debate over whether this was the first time a political party’s flag has been sunk into Mount Everest.

First, political statements have been made before, though not with the flag of any single party. Micha Yaniv, an Israeli member of a joint Israeli-Palestinian expedition, had placed the flags of both sides in a gesture that was seen as an act of great courage.

His Palestinian fellow climber, Ali Bushnaq, had collapsed on the way to the top and was forced to wait at 23,000 feet. Bushnaq had broken into tears when he heard of Yaniv’s feat.

Second, a website entry speaks of an Everest Expedition, where a seven-member Nepali team was to start on April 18, with the objective of hoisting the flags of the eight political parties involved in the country’s democracy movement atop the summit. It is not clear, though, if they made it.

Flags have a special relationship with Everest. Sherpas and most Western climbers bring prayer flags to the Everest base camp. Before the climb, the flags are strung from rock altars during the puja in which climbers show respect to the mountain and seek the gods’ permission to trespass on their heights.

Then there are the oddball climbers. The Japanese Hiroyuki Okouchi flew a Harley-Davidson flag at the peak to commemorate the iconic bike’s 100th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the first conquest of Everest.