New Delhi: IIT-Delhi alumnus Neeraj Chaudhary tested positive when he was just about to scale Mount Everest. He had to return from Kathmandu to Jaipur for treatment.
The hurdle couldn’t stop Chaudhary from fulfilling his dream. He tested positive on March 27 but returned to the Kathmandu base in a month’s time along with his team. He eventually managed to touch the peak on May 31, a couple of months after testing COVID positive. He hoisted the institution’s flag along with the tricolour atop the summit.
Thirty-seven-year-old Chaudhary earned his MTech in Environmental Sciences and Management from the IIT-Delhi during 2009-11. He is currently employed with the Rajasthan government’s Water Resources Department. He started mountaineering in 2014, and within six years got picked for the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) Everest Expedition under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
The expedition in 2020 was held back due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year he again attempted the expedition.
“But I hit a roadblock when I tested positive for Covid and had to return to Jaipur. I was feeling fatigued since a few days but I had no other symptoms,” Chaudhury was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
“At that moment as well, I wasn’t really thinking of COVID. All I could think of was how much effort I had put in and the preparations I had done to reach there and that was my chance to complete it. I think that motivation of not having a second chance anytime soon helped me push my body harder and there I was,” Chaudhary added.
“It wasn’t easy mentally, and mountaineering is not just a physical effort. When I reached there, then also it took me three attempts within 36 hours to ultimately reach the top but once there, it was the best feeling. I managed to scale the peak on May 31,” he went on.
Chaudhary credited the IIT-Delhi for shaping his career and thanked the alumni association for helping him start a Rs 24 lakh fundraiser for the expedition.
“It’s a matter of great pride that an alumnus of IIT Delhi Neeraj Choudhary, MTech, (Shivalik hostel) successfully scaled Mt Everest summit (8848.86m AMSL) on May 31. Neeraj carried the IIT Delhi flag with him and hoisted it on Mount Everest.
“He started the summit push directly from Camp-II (6400m AMSL) on May 30 and after the summit on 31st, returned directly to Camp-II in a continuous effort of almost 36 hours,” IIT-Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao was quoted as saying by the agency.
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