Indian climber finally ascends Mt Everest, 6 years after faked photos

KATHMANDU, 3 June 2022:

Indian mountaineer Narender Singh Yadav has finally conquered Mt Everest and redeemed himself – after being banned by Nepali authorities from mountaineering, due to making a fake claim to have climbed world’s tallest peak six years ago with the help of morphed photos.

Yadav, who claimed to have become the first Indian to have climbed Everest in six days, on Wednesday received a certificate of having scaled the peak, an official of the Nepali department of tourism, Bhishma Raj Bhattarai, confirmed.

“The Indian climber claimed that no other Indians have climbed Everest in just six days. We don’t know about the record but we have verified that this time he has climbed Everest genuinely,” said Bhattarai.

Yadav “flew to the Everest base camp on May 21 through a chopper and started to climb Everest directly without acclimatisation,” said Nivesh Karki, the executive director of Pioneer Adventure – the agency handling the Indian’s climb.

Foreign climbers normally spend 30-45 days at the Everest best camp to acclimatise themselves before beginning the ascent.

However, Karki asserted that Yadav skipped this step and reached the summit on May 27, before starting his journey back to Kathmandu two days later.

In 2020, the Indian climber was nominated for the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award, India’s highest recognition in the field of adventure sports.

However, his participation in the ceremony was suspended due to doubts over his ascent.

Yadav was banned from scaling the world’s tallest peak for six years with retrospective effect, after it was found that he had submitted fake photographs to back the claim of having reached the summit in May 2016.

He was issued a climbing permit a day after the ban expired on May 20 this year.

Yadav claims to have scaled the highest mountains in five continents, and aspires to achieve the feat in all seven, with the next targets being Mt Denali (the US) and Mt Vinson (Antarctica).

Yadav is not the only climber to have faked having ascended Everest.

In 2016, Nepal imposed a 10-year mountaineering ban on Indian climbers Dinesh Rathore and Tara Keshari Rathore, who had claimed to have become the first Indian couple to have scaled the world’s highest summit by submitting morphed photos.

Apart from furnishing an obligatory photo proof, mountaineers are now required to present a report prepared by an official who works as a liaison with the government and accompanies them to the base camp.

– EFE