Mt.SHIKAR BEH & Mt.GUPT PARVAT EXPEDITION।JUNE,2024।SONARPUR AROHI

The peaks- Mt. Shikar Beh (6200 m) and Gupt Parbat (6159 m)- remained out of bounds for mountaineers to date. Seven attempts were made to scale Shikar Beh but not a single attempt was made for the latter. The expedition, under the banner of ‘Sonarpur Arohi’, will be led by Rudra Prasad Halder and Satyarup Siddhanta, the deputy leader. Both have proven their expertise in scaling challenging peaks. The other members are Chayan Chatterjee, Debashis Mazumder, Tuhin Bhattacharyya, Naitik Naskar, Dr. Uddipan Halder (medical officer), Dipashree Paul, Nandish Kallimani and Rudra Prasad Chakraborty. Mt. Shikhar Beh is the highest in Himachal Pradesh in peak prominence (2234m) and is the ninth highest in the country.

The famous Everest expedition leader, C.G. Bruce ascended the Gepang Goh Mountain in1912 from the other side of the Chandranadi River, bringing Shikar Beh to everyone’s attention. Gepang, once a king, was the deity of the Lahul Spiti region who resided in the village of Gondla. His fortress, Gondla Fort, still stands there. Initially, the locals referred to Shikar Beh as Gondla Mountain. Later, surveyors named it ‘M’. Subsequently, it’s now called Shikar Beh. In 1955, under the leadership of A.J.M. Smith, the Royal British Army, during their Kulthi Basin exploration, managed to reach the ‘Summit Cone’ of the Shikar Beh mountain. Despite several expeditions from Japan, Italy, and India, Shikar Beh has remained climbed only one time by Japanese team in 1973.

Gupt Parbat, known as Mount Gupt, has remained hidden from human sight. No photograph of it was ever captured nor any expedition made. “Our expedition and research will proceed through an entirely new path where no human footprints exist to date. Various expedition teams have expressed concerns that the topographical maps of this region in the Pir Panjal and Dhauladhar ranges are inaccurate.After reaching there we also found that there are huge changes of topography.We successfully climbed the peak on 25th june,2024, first ascent to this hidden peak.We found the peak height is also inacurate.