Standing majestically as a guardian of the Indian subcontinent, the Himalayas have always been an inspiration to Basanta Singha Roy. The 53-year-old mountaineer from West Bengal, who has led 21 successful expeditions including the triumphant scaling of Mount Everest (8,850m) in 2010 and a year later of the Kanchenjunga (8,586m), was recently in the city to share his experiences with aspiring and professional mountaineers.

Pic courtesy/Basanta Singha Roy

How it all started
Roy’s love for mountaineering began in his late 20s, during his trips to hill stations, where he began to sense a connection with the mountains. The realisation took him to rock climbing camps, and later to sign up for the Basic and Advance Mountaineering Course at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi. Roy mastered his skills for the next two decades, leading several successful civilian expeditions. In 2010, Roy led a team of civilian climbers from Krishnagar Mountaineers’ Association to the top of the Mount Everest, followed by India’s first civilian expedition to Kanchenjunga in 2011. “I started climbing the Himalayas after the course, in the 1990s, but it took me 20 years to reach the top of Mount Everest,” recalls Roy. In 2012, he successfully led the first Indian civilian expedition to Annapurna I (8,091 m).