Three Indian climbers accused of falsely claiming to have climbed Mount Everest in 2016 were banned by Nepal from climbing in the country for six years.
The alleged false ascent came to light after one of the three, 26-year-old Narender Singh Yadav, was named as a potential recipient of the Tenzing Norgay national adventure prize, after which other Indian climbers claimed that the summit photos were falsified.
While mountaineering and rock climbing have sparked intermittent controversies over the alleged early ascents, these scandals are less common in a world crowded with peak commercial expeditions like Everest, where there are countless potential witnesses and there is much less incentive to cheat.
The three prohibited climbers were named Yadav and Seema Rani Goswami, who allegedly made false claims, and Naba Kumar Phukon, who was the team leader during the climb of Yadav and Goswami.
After news of the ban on mountaineering in Nepal, Yadav denied any wrongdoing, claiming on Twitter that he had been defamed and adding: “There is no competition between donkeys and horses and the world will continue to bark like that”.
However, witnesses, including Phukon, said that Indian climbers appeared to have not had enough oxygen to make the climb they planned.
“It is a victory for the entire mountaineering fraternity and will discourage others from making such a mistake in the future,” said Phukon, who works with the sports department in Assam.
“From day one I told everyone that Yadav’s statement on the summit was false and he changed his image. I was the leader of the expedition and he was part of the team. He never reached the summit and even had cold burns. He, together with Seema Rani Goswami, had to be rescued by the Sherpas ”.
The alleged rise to Everest is one of several by Indian teams that have recently sparked skepticism. In 2019, three other Indian climbers were accused in Outside magazine of claiming to have climbed the mountain without reaching higher than Camp 3, a significant path from the summit.
The Times of India quoted a source from the Indian Sports Ministry as suggesting that they agreed with Nepal’s ban after an investigation that also involved the Indian Mountaineering Federation.
“The Narender Singh Yadav issue ended up on our side. The investigation initiated by the ministry revealed that he pretended to climb Everest. He sent fake photos, ”said the source.
The ascents of Everest are generally verified by a liaison officer at the Nepal Ministry of Tourism, and climbers must take a picture of themselves standing on the summit with a clear view of their face before receiving a dome certificate.
In addition to banning Indian climbers, who waited until they returned to India to announce their supposed rise, rather than in Nepal, Nepal also fined Seven Summit Treks, which organized the expedition. Yadav’s Sherpa guide, Dawa Sherpa, was fined 10,000 Nepalese rupees (£ 60). They had all attested to Yadav’s claims. Yadav and Rani were members of a 14-man commercial expedition.
Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks said he issued the certificate because the climbers’ claim was supported by the accompanying Sherpa guide.
“If climbers make a false climb, how will the trekking company know? Our task is to assist in obtaining the license, organize the walk and the route. The two Indian climbers showed us the photos of their summit and we wrote that they had climbed. Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism decides on certificates, ”Mingma Sherpa told Indian Express.
Prohibited climbers would not be the first to claim peaks they had not completed. While it is sometimes a matter of stopping at a nearby peak, as is usually the case on Nepal’s alleged climbs of Mount Manaslu – which are more widely accepted – in other cases the controversy is greater.
In 1906, Frederick Cook, later convicted of fraud for his business, falsely claimed to have made the first climb to the highest mountain in North America, Denali, Alaska, posing for a photo of the summit on a rocky outcrop.
Perhaps the biggest controversy about climbing has centered on the claims of Cesare Maestri – one of Europe’s greatest climbers, who died at the age of 91 last month – that he climbed Cerro Torre in Patagonia in 1959, sparking a controversy for decades.