Bangladeshi Babar Ali climbs Mount Everest

 
Babar Ali, who had previously become the first Bangladeshi national to climb the Ama Dablam peak in the Himalayas, has climbed Mount Everest.

He is the first mountaineer from Chattogram to conquer the world's tallest mountain and the sixth Bangladeshi to do so. "Babar hoisted the Bangladeshi flag at the Everest peak around 8:30 am local time in Nepal. This time it is a Bangladeshi national reaching Everest after 11 years," said Farhan Zaman, chief coordinator of Babar Ali's expedition. "

Five other Bangladeshis had reached the peak at Everest from 2010 to 2013. They were Musa Ibrahim, MA Muhith, Nishat Majumdar, Wasfia Nazreen and Md Khaled Hossain. Muhith has climbed the mountain twice. Babar, a physician from Chattogram, will start another expedition to Lhotse after Everest. He shared the details of his voyage in a press briefing on Mar 30 in Chattogram and set off to Nepal on Apr 1.

He reached Lukla from Kathmandu on Apr 4 and started trekking. Babar reached the Everest Base Camp on Apr 10. "The most important factor in the Everest expedition is acclimatising to the height by practising climbing. But the mountaineers' group in Nepal could not figure out a path even after waiting several days," said Farhan Zaman.

"As a result, Babar picked an alternative route. He summited the 20,075-feet-high Lobuche East Mountain on Apr 16. Then he went back to the base camp and when the route to the bottom opened and went to Camp 2 from the base on Apr 26. This was how he ended the acclimatisation phase." On May 14, Babar set out to reach his dream, said Farhan. He reached Camp 2 at an elevation of 21,300 feet directly on the first day. As per the plan, he spent two nights there and reached Camp 3 at an elevation of 24,500 feet on May 17 and Camp 4 on May 18.

"The top part of the 26,000-foot-high Camp 4 is known as the death zone. Babar began his journey again at midnight on May 19 and hoisted the national flag of Bangladesh at the 29,031-foot-high peak of Mount Everest just as the first rays of the sun hit it."

However, Babar's expedition has yet to end. Farhan said that Babar wanted climb the world's fourth-highest mountain Lhotse.

Accordingly, he will start this journey after climbing down to Camp-4 on Sunday and, if everything went well, would reach the peak on Monday morning.
No Bangladeshi mountaineer has climbed Lhotse - at an elevation of 29,740 - so far. Babar will also become the first Bangladeshi to climb both peaks on the same expedition.

The expedition was run by Snowy Horizon in Nepal and Vertical Dreamers, an organisation of the mountaineers, said in a press statement. Babar's long-time friend and guide Bir Bahadur Tamang accompanied him on the expedition.

"Babar's success isn't just his achievement alone, but it made the entire nation proud. It will inspire the youth in the country to dream big and strive to achieve it. Many people contributed to turning this dream expedition into a reality. We thank them all," said Farhan.

Since the emergence of Vertical Dreamers in 2014, Babar has gone on several different mountain expeditions with his colleagues. He hails from Burishchar in Chattogram's Hathazari. His parents are Leyakat Ali and Lutfunnahar Begum.

Babar worked as a public health officer for some days but later resigned from his job as getting leave for going to mountain expeditions became an issue.

The total cost of Babar's expedition stood at Tk 4.5 million and the main sponsor was Visual Knitwear Limited.

Other sponsors were Everest Pharmaceuticals Limited, Dhaka Divers Club, Beacon Pharmaceuticals, Blue J, Chandrabindu Publications, Giri and Vertical Dreamers. Several social and sports organisations and individuals took part in raising public funds for the expedition.

>>Agency