Women on top!

 

 

Adjectives like daredevil, bold, brave, tough are not usually associated with women, especially for ladies like the petite, coy Priyanka. But Priyanka with seventeen other teammates has done something that will not only shatter every prejudice and bias but will also make every Indian proud. They became the first ever all-women team to reach and unfurl the Indian flag in Indira Col. – the place from where the Siachen Glacier, the highest and coldest battlefield of the world, originates. The trek had started on August 5 and was to culminate on August 21, but they summited it six days earlier in order to finish on India’s Independence Day!

Siachen is part of Laddakh and the base camp is housed with Army Mountaineering Institute, which imparts indispensable training to the troops but in the recent years it has become the nodal point for the mountaineers planning for very high altitudes and is in the able hands of two Everesters Colonel SC Sharma, Sena Medal and Subedar Major CN Bodh, Sena Medal. The 18 girls were trained in ice-craft, crevice crossing, rope tricks and even evacuation in the time of any eventuality, for here everything is in extremes. Normal temperature remains between 0 degree to 6 degree but it falls to minus 60 to minus 100 degree in a crevice. Death at this battlefield has been more from the hazards of climate than battle.

Priyanka is a Captain in the Corps of Signal of the Army, and she says the place is “totally barren and a white sheet of snow covers everything. It is not a normal place, and one requires a strict regimen to keep one’s thoughts in balance.” It is a place where life-giving oxygen is rarified and the feeling of complete loneliness envelopes you. It is a dangerous cocktail even for the person in the best of health. “There are peaks all around, the stars look so beautiful, and even the ice is so clear that it looks blue! But the backpack of approximately 20 kilograms and the heavy clothes with 3 kilo Scarpa shoes take the mind completely away,” continued Priyanka. Lieutenant Neelam Rathore is proud of their achievement too. She says, “I pushed myself in the beginning but every step infused me with confidence and I am very happy as this is hard-earned success.” Neelam speaks of confidence and the sense of the adventure, which is the main aim of the army in planning such dangerous activities for its soldiers during peace time. The team has proved that with proper planning, training and team work nothing in this world is impossible.

Major Linyu hails from Laddakh and things like temperature in minus and snow storms never deter her. She performed the twin roles in the final leg – of a trekker and of a medical officer. Linyu says with a broad smile, “We used to get together and play cards, Ludo… This was a sort of recreation and also served the purpose of keeping the team spirit and motivation high. Such a bitter sense of isolation prevails there that one cannot survive without a team.” It was their team spirit which has earned them the title of Siachen Trailblazers. Triumphant and proud, these ladies of steel salute the soldiers who to do their duty stay on the treacherous glacier for months together…