By Tiger Solanki
Having heard about the tales of Himalayan Expedition on several occasions and having listened to my son’s tales several times, I was little apprehensive whether I can do a Himalayan expedition or not. I was having back pain and was apprehensive about the cold too but I could still do it and that was a moment to celebrate, says Suma Mahesh, Past President of Innerwheel Club of Mysore Central. Tiger Adventure Foundation (TAF), in association with The Mountain Goat, had organised an exclusive trekking to Mount Baraadsar Pass for the women folk of Karnataka from April 18 to May 2, 2018. I was a witness to the 67th Republic Day celebration on Jan.26, 2015 which was the first R-Day for Narendra Modi, as the Prime Minister of India and it was he who gave a call 'Nari Shakti' wherein the females from all the Tri services, namely Army, Navy and Indian Air force marched with pride on the Rajpath. And in the team which marched on the Rajpath, we had one girl officer Ananya Balasubramanya of NIE College who made into the Services from Mysuru. She was in the Indian Air Force Contingent. Marching on the Rajpath is a rare honour anybody gets in his/ her life. Taking a cue from that day, we at TAF had taken an all-ladies team to the National Himalayan Trekking Expedition-2018 to Mount Baraadsar Pass which is located at a height of 14,500 ft between the Rupin and Supin valleys. The Pass is virtually on the border of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and it also coincided with 65th year of first ascent on Mt. Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. About 27 females participated in this expedition; the females were from Shivamogga, Chikkaballapur, Madikeri, Bengaluru, Hassan and Mysuru. PHF Riya Solanki, a 13-year-old girl from Mysuru who has got the track record of summiting six Peaks/ Pass/ Tops, in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand since last five years apart from summiting on the Everest Base Camp which is at a height of 17,590 feet last year in Nepal, had taken the mantle of the expedition.
