The Raksha Rajya Mantri Rao Inderjit Singh Flagged off the first ever all girls NCC Mount Everest expedition. The team of 10 girl cadets is scheduled to scale Mount Everest between 15 to May 25 2016. lt Gen A Chakravarty, AVSM, VSM, director general of National Cadet Corps, had proposed the conduct of first ever NCC Girls Expedition to Mt Everest in 2014.
All India trials at 25 selected hubs were carried out and 100 girl cadets were nominated to undergo the Customised Mountaineering Course at Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI), Darjeeling. Based on their performance, 40 girl cadets were selected for the first Pre-Everest Expedition.
Pre-Everest Expedition to Mt Deo-Tibba (19,688 Feet), near Manali in Himachal Pradesh was conducted for 40 cadets in Apr-May 2015. Fifteen cadets were selected for the next phase based on their performance. In Aug 2015, the team set off on the second Pre-Everest Expedition to Mt Trishul (23,360 feet), and helped in selecting 10 girl cadets for Everest Expedition.
The culmination of Pre-Expedition activities was winter training at Siachen Base Camp in January. The training camps exposed the team to extreme cold conditions and further refined ice craft skills.
The team lead by Col Gaurav Karki, along with 15 service personnel and 10 girl cadets would reach Nepal on Mar ch 31, 2016 and after a long trek to Base Camp from April 8 to April 25 is likely to summit the peak between May 15 to May 25.
The aim of mountaineering expeditions in NCC is to strengthen the character and instill qualities of courage, comradeship, discipline and leadership in the cadets. NCC has always been in the forefront in adventure activities. The first mountaineering course for NCC Cadets was conducted for 42 days at Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI), Darjeeling in 1961. Every year, NCC sponsors 354 boy and girl cadets for basic mountaineering courses at HMI, Darjeeling, NIM Uttarkashi, ABVIMAS Manali and JIM and WS Pahalgam.
Mountaineering Expedition as an adventure activity was introduced in NCC in the year 1970, since then, NCC conducts two mountaineering expeditions every year.