82 year old Shailendra Kumar Upadhyay's died on his way to climb Mt. Everest

Ex-Foreign Minister, 82-year-old Shailendra Kumar Upadhyay has died on his way to climb Mt. Everest. He had left for the top of the world on April 17, 2011. He died while walking in a place called Ice Fall, some 2 km above the Mt. Everest base camp.

According to report, Upadhaya died at around 5 and 6 PM of May 9, 2011. The dead body will be brought back by a 17 member mountering team lead by Dawa Steven Sherpa.

xNepali team offers heartily condolence to the family of the brave-hearted Shailendra Kumar Upadhyay and we wish his soul rest in peace.

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82-year-old to conquer Mt. Everest; good luck Shailendra K Upadhyaya

It was 2years ago, I wrote about the former Foreign Minister, Shailendra Kumar Upadhyay, who announced about his intention to scale Mt. Everest.

Shailendra climbed a 6,160m high Island peak and 6,467m tall Mera Peak successfully in the last few years as a preparation of his ultimate feat to climb Mt. Everest.

Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya, served as the foreign minister and permanent UN representative in the 1970s and 1980s.

The diplomat grandfather says:

I am confident of my success as I believe that the most important part of success of any mission is confidence in oneself, selfless c
ommitment to serve humanity and, of course,will to achieve success.

Upadhyaya is planning to start his ascent from the Everest base camp on April 28, 2011. The expedition is organized by the Senior Citizen Mount Everest Expedition. If Upadhyaya could reach the top, he will dethrone another record holder Nepali senior, Min Bahadur Sherchan who climbed the peak at the age of 76 in 2008. After much struggle, he was finally entered as the oldest climber of Mt. Everest in the Guinness Book of Records in 2010.

3G goes Mt. Everest

Ncell’s 3G network in the Mt. Everest area has made the top of the world easily accessible by the mobile network. The mobile station is located at 5,200 meter above the sea level. The new service is expected to help the Tourism Year 2011 in the positive way.

It has only been a month since Ncell started 3G services in Nepal. The service was established in association with TeliaSonera Mobile Networks. TeliaSonera has also setup a 3G network in a mine in Sweden some 1,400 m below the sea level.

Mobile network Mero Mobile was renamed Ncell on 12th March 2010. Ncell is the only company offering 3G network and BlackBerry mobile sets in Nepal.

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Save the Himalaya program held in New York

In spite of the controversy caused by Minister Deepak Bohara for the participation in the program, ‘Save The Himalaya’ was successfully held in New York on September 21, 2010.

Appa Sherpa, 20 times Everest climber and other 20 Nepali mountaineers attended the walk. There were a total of 200 people including Nepali and foreigners in the rally. Home Minister, Bhim Rawal and Forestry Minister, Deepak Bohora addressed the rally.

Among the participants were the mounteneers – Appa Sherpa, Dima Gombu Sherpa, Tenji Sherpa, Pasang Rinji Shrepa, Serab Jangbu Sherpa, Angbabu Jimba Sherpa, Lakpa Gelja Sherpa, Kipa Sherpa, Lakpanorbu Sherpa, Angchiri Sherpa, Migma Nurbu Sherpa, Sonam Sherpa, Migma Chiri Sherpa, Dawa Steven Sherpa, and A.C. Sherpa.

Press Release: Save the Himalayas to be staged in New York City

  • An Awareness Rally to be held on 21st September 2010 (Tuesday).
  • At: Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 47th Street, New York, USA while world leaders gathered in the United Nations. (Noon to 4 PM)
  • Participants – 29 mountaineers joined by a crowd environmentalists, Nepalese-American immigrants, Nepal’s Minister of Forest and Soil Conservation, and outdoor enthusiasts

Sudarshan Gautam – Disabled climber to drive across Canada

Have you ever heard of Sudarshan Gautam? If you haven’t, you would better be prepared to be surprised !

Sudarshan is a Nepali guy in his late twenties, planning to climb Mount Everest in 2012. But, this guy doesn’t have hands to hold the rope on those slippery slopes.

That is not all, he also drives car with his feet, does all of his everyday chores without support, and his is hot in Canadian medias these days. Sudarshan is doing fund raising for the Everest summit and other social works he want to do for Nepal.

Sudarshan is all set to drive across Canada with his feet next year, for his fund raising effort.

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Sherchan, the oldest Everest conquer, arrested?

Update: It is reported that Min Bahadur is accused of swindling Rs 2.5 million. He was caught after a tip off by a team of four to five conmen who were arrested at Maitighar, Kathmandu. The police has told that he will be taken to Pokhara for further investigation. Sherchan has refuted the accusation but, has also expressed his readiness to help the police.

An online newspaper, onlinekhaber, has reported that the oldest Mt. Everest conquer, Min Bahadur Sherchan, has been arrested in Kathmandu.
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Melting Everest – being monitored by time-lapse camera

An American organization has installed five special time-lapse video cameras to observe the melting of ice on the top of the world, Mt. Everest. This is the fist time such camera is installed in the Everest region to monitor the melting of glaciers.

Everest region got a renewed attention when a key document of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – a scientific body to look into climate change issues inaccurately predicted the the disappearance of all the glaciers in the Himalayas by 2035. IPCC recently admitted the data mistake in its report published in 2007.

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Yet another successful Everest Summit – Cyclist on the top

It was not only the youngest, Jordan Romero, on the top and Himalayan Tiger, Apa’s 20th summit, there is yet another climber to remember who scaled the top of the world. The world traveler on bicycle, Puskar Shah, hoisted the flags of 192 countries he visited on May 17, 2010. 

It was not only the flags he carried to the top of the world but also the front wheel of his bicycle. He also sang a popular Nepali song “Resham Firiri” and remembered his mother during his 45 minutes stay at the peak of the 8,848m mountain.

Puskar said, “When I embarked on the world tour in 1998, I had a goal of hoisting the flags of all the nations for peace.”

The 42-year-old, Shah said he has accomplished his mission and he is very happy that his world tour for peace has been a success.

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Yes, he did it! Oldest climber got Guinness certificate

Min Bahadur Sherchan, climbed Mt. Everest, the 29,028 feet (8,848-meter) peak, at the age of 76 in 2008. But, the 2009 edition of Guinness Book of World Records had Japanese national Yuichiro Miura as the oldest person to reach the top of the world at 75.

Sherchan did apply for his rightful entry in the record book but getting the honor was as tough as climbing the highest peak itself.

Sherchan first thought of setting a record on mountaineering in 1960. He wanted to be the first to climb Dhaulagiri (8,167m) but another team succeeded in climbing it before he could attempt. After 40 years, in 2002, he decided to be the oldest person to climb Mt. Everest breaking the records set by Japanese mountaineers. He started his trainings at the age of 72 and climbed the peak on May 25, 2008 at the age of 76 years and 350 days (almost 77 years).

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Appa Sherpa set new Mt. Everest record of 19 accents

Well done Appa! Congratulation on your new record on the top of the world for the 19th time.

Appa Sherpa reached the top of Mt. Everest on May 21, 2009 at 8 am for the 19th time to break his own record of 18 ascents, last year. Appa was leading Eco Everest Expedition 2009.

It was not an easy expedition as this climbing season saw one of the worst weather conditions. The expedition was struck by tragedy on May 7 when Lhakpa Nuru, a high altitude climber, died in an avalanche and two of the team members gave up summit hopes and returned to Kathmandu.

After the failed first attempt in 1988 Appa climbed the peak for the first time in 1990. That is, 19 accents in 20 years.

Previous post – Apa Sherpa to conquer Mt. Everest 19th time

80-yr old man’s quest for Mt. Everest record

UPDATE: In his courageous attempt to climb the Mt. Everest, Shailendra Kumar Upadhyay died on May 9, 2011 just above the Everest base camp. May his soul rest in peace!

The record keeping mountain, Mt. Everest, has been the best place for Nepali people to break old records and make new ones. Energetic, ambitious mountaineers like Apa Sherpa make and break their own records on it. But this time a well-known but unsuspected mountaineer is planning for a new record on the top of the world. Not so young, well known for works others than mountaineering, Shailendra Kumar Upadhyay is planning to scale the peak to break a previous record set by a 75 year old Japanese climber.

If you are from Nepal and had lived through the Panchayat System of 80s you would probably know Mr. Shailendra Kumanr Upadhyay. He had been a diplomat, social worker, and he also worked as Minister for Foreign Affairs.

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Top 10 Highest Peaks in the World, 8 are in Nepal

Nepal is blessed with 8 out of 10 highest peaks in the world and Nepali people are proud of it. I am going to present some photos and details of the ten highest peaks in this post.

1. Mount Everest 8850m (29035ft) Nepal

The highest peak in the world, Mount Everest is also called Qomolangma/Chomolungma (Tibetian) and Sagarmatha (Nepali). Chomolungma in Tibetian means “Mother of the Universe” or “Goddess Mother of the Snows” and Sagarmatha in Nepali means “Head of the Sky”. Further details about the peak can be read in this wikipedia page.


Aerial view of Mount Chomolungma (Everest). Picture: ICT(source)

2. K2 (Qogir) 8611m (28250ft) Pakistan / China

K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth, is located in the Karakoram segment of the Himalayan range, on the border between the Gilgit-Baltistan region of the Pakistan administered Northern Areas and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China. Further read in Wikipedia.

3. Kangchenjunga 8586m (28169ft) Nepal

Kangchenjunga translated means “The Five Treasures of Snows”, as it contains five peaks, four of them over 8,450 metres.

  • Kangchenjunga Main 8,586m (28,169 ft.)
  • Kangchenjunga West (Yalung Kang) 8,505m (27,904 ft.)
  • Kangchenjunga Central (Middle) 8,482m (27,828 ft.)
  • Kangchenjunga South 8,494m (27,867 ft.)
  • Kangbachen 7,903m (25,925 ft.)


Photo and details in Wikipedia

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