Airforce mountaineers set off on Mission Tricolour

NEW DELHI - A team of Indian Air Force (IAF) mountaineers was Friday flagged off from here on an expedition to scale Mt. Elbrus in Europe and Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa - as part of its mission to hoist the Indian tricolour on top of all the highest peaks of each continent in the world.

Air officer-in-charge administration Air Marshal J.N. Burma flagged off the six-member mountaineering expedition team led by Wing Commander R.C. Tripathi.

The team also includes squadron leaders Namit Rawat, G.P. Kumar and D. Panda, Junior Warrant Officer N.R. Choudhary and Sergeant J. Singh. The expedition is from Aug 9 to Sep 4.

The climbers have undertaken many expeditions in the Himalaya region and have good experience of mountaineering. Mt. Elbrus is over 5,600 m high and Mt Kilimanjaro is nearly 5,900 m high.

Air Marshal Burma handed over the tricolour and the IAF flag to the team leader and wished them all success and a safe return.

The IAF mountaineering team has already summitted the highest mountain peak in the world Mt Everest (8,840 m) in May 2005.

Mountaineers from the IAF have also scaled Mt Carstensz Pyramid (4,884m), Australasia in January 2009, Mt. Aconcagua (6,962m), South America in March, and Mt Denali (6,194m) in North America in May this year.

IAF’s ‘Mission Seven Summits’, to climb all the highest peaks of all the continents, began in 2005.

The project is being conducted under the aegis of Directorate of Air Force Adventure, the apex body looking after various adventure activities like sky diving, para gliding, paramotor, mountaineering, skiing, trekking, white water rafting, sailing and mountain terrain biking etc.

The last peak as a part of the mission will be attempted in December to climb Mt Vinson Massif in Antarctica.