ITBP team flagged off to scale Mt Dhaulagiri

A 25-member ITBP expedition team was today flagged off to scale Mount Dhaulagiri, the world's seventh tallest peak located in Nepal.
Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) chief Krishna Chaudhary sent off the personnel of the mountain-trained border guarding force for the expedition during an event held here.
The 8,167-metre tall peak is located in Nepal and this will be the first expedition of the force to this mountain.
It was successfully climbed for the first time by a Swiss-Austrian-Nepali expedition in 1960, an ITBP official said.
The team is expected to make the final summit anytime in May and return by June.

"The expedition team has been put through rigorous physical training and has been extensively trained on all technical aspects required to tackle difficulties while ascending through glacial fields, knife icy ridges, rocky spires on its way to higher altitude camps and summit.
"The team is fully equipped with latest snow and rock equipments. It may summit the peak on any day in May, 2017 depending upon favorable weather condition," the official said.
The force, raised in 1962, is tasked to guard the 3,488-km Sino-Indian frontier and its border posts are located at altitudes ranging from 9,000-feet to 18,700-feet.