Arunachal CM receives Mt Kangto exploration team

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Friday flagged-in the Mt Kangto Exploration Arunachal Team 2017.

Mt. Kangto, which is 23,163 feet above the sea level, is on Arunachal Pradesh's border with China. It is the highest point of this frontier state which China claims as Southern Tibet.

The team headed by Mt Everest conqueror Tapi Mra with members Tame Bagang, who has also scaled Mt Everest, mountaineers Tagit Sorang and Taru Hai went ahead of an ITBP team and identified a base camp at a height of 12,500 feet on April 4. They halted overnight and returned the next day.

The expedition was flagged off on March 23.

Covered in snow throughout the year, Mt. Kangto, a virgin peak, is the source of the Pachuk river, one of the main tributaries of the Kamengriver in East Kameng district. Mt Kangto is yet to be scaled by humans.

A joint expedition team of ITBP and Indian Mountaineering Foundation had established a base camp at 9,920 feet on the banks of Pachukriver that flows down from the range in the Eastern Himalayas, along the India-China border on October 21 last year.

The Arunachal Team went up to the actual base of Mt Kangto and established a base camp where Pachuk is in its glacier form, thus becoming the first to reach nearest to the peak.

"Mt Kangto, which is still unconquered, has been in the focus for years due to its difficult terrain. You have done a marvellous job by identifying a base camp nearer the peak and now it is upon us to further the mission," Khandu said.

--IANS

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