IAF becomes 1st org in world to scale Seven Summits

New Delhi, Jan 11: After scaling Mt Vinson in Antarctica, Indian Air Force (IAF) has become the first organisation to accomplish the “Seven Summit”, climbing the highest mountains of each of the seven continents.

Mt Vinson, standing tall at 16050 feet, is the most prestine and remotest mountain on earth.
Congratulating the IAF mountaineering expedition team, Chief of IAF ACM BS Dhanoa said, “We feel proud of our air warriors, who flied Indian Flag and Indian Air Force flag atop of the Mt Vinson. I am sure that this endeavour will motivate many more warriors beyond them.”
He also said, “The expedition was conducted in a very matured and balanced way and has created history for India and IAF.”
Sharing his experience of this expedition, Group Captain RC Tripathi who was also the team leader said, “Since Antarctica was new to us we had fear but at the same time we were more prepared and had high level of confidence. Weather condition was very cold, wind was blowing at a speed of 40-100 km. We had to cut short our planning and expedition to three days. First we moved to Mt Vinson camp by IL 76 then to low camp and subsequently to high camp.”
Gp Capt Tripathi had also flied the tri-colour and IAF flag on the highest peaks of other six continents.
Before Mt Vinson, he had been to Mt Everest in 2005 in Nepal, Indonesia's Mt Carstenz Pyramid, Russia's Mt Elbrus, South Africa's Mt Kilimanjaro, Argentina's Mt Aconcagua and Alaska's Mt McKinley/ Denali.
Further he added, “We would like to dedicate our conquering to Seven Summits to our Squadron Leader SS Chaitanya who died after blown off in 2005. He was in our team to Mt Everest expedition. Also, we would like to dedicate to Sergeant Shantanu died recently.”
The concept of Seven Summits came after scaling of Mt Everest in 2005, the IAF launched a unique and unprecedented series of mountaineering expeditions 'Mission Seven Summits' with an aim to fly tricolour and IAF flag on the highest peaks in every continent.
Before leaving for expedition on December 13, 2017, the team had completed pre-expedition training and acclimatisation in Leh and Siachen from November 24 to December 3. UNI