09/03/2023
We are so happy and proud to share that one of our Co founder Intiaz Mahmud made it to the history .
He is the First ever Bangladeshi to summit six-thousander Himalayan mountain, Mount Pisang (6091m) purely solo (without any guide, Porter or teammates)
Intiaz Mahmud -
Dear friends, I am so happy to announce that I successfully made it to the summit of a six-thousander Himalayan mountain, Mount Pisang (6091 m). This is my first solo climb on a six-thousander and might as well be the first from Bangladesh. I did it without any guide, porter, or teammate—nothing. Purely solo. However, it didn't go exactly as I planned. It was intended to be a winter expedition. (More on it later.)
Difficulties managing funds from the beginning, losing my passport and a big chunk of money to theft, having one meal a day and walking even before road head to save money, dealing with climbing permit fraud, taking help from locals for food and accommodations—these are a few things from a long list of unfortunate events that I had to endure all alone during this whole time, well aside from the climbing difficulties. I still couldn’t dig myself entirely out of this mess, which is why I'm writing this post days after the summit.
But, no matter how harshly it tested me, whatever the cost or pain, the end story is: I did it! And every single person I met on this whole journey has made some sort of contribution towards achieving it, in one way or another. THANK YOU!! Take my warm gratitude and love for being here with me and for considering me worthy of your love. I dedicate this summit to you all.
Now, if you're interested, here's some more detailed update on the current situation and about the whole expedition, including some very unpleasant incidents that i had to be a part of.
On February 16, I came to Nepal for this winter solo project. It took me about 4 days to arrange the permit and be done with all the last-minute preparatory things. But unfortunately, at the morning of 20th Feb, I discovered my passport, along with a few thousand Nepali rupees, was missing. I immediately informed the local police station. They took a case and told me to wait. Meanwhile, I lost a couple days to this incident, printed leaflets, and gave them out all over Thamel, to see if anyone returned the passport. Then I had to bring more money from Dhaka, to replenish the expedition fund.
On another note, while I was dealing with all these troubles, I also paid 200 USD to a Nepali guy named "Narbin Magar," who owns a travel agency named "High Five Adventure," and made a commitment to pay another 50 USD upon receiving the permit. But since there were three public holidays in a row, he was unable to deposit the money and give me the permit, or so he told me. But as the winter was getting over, he told me to proceed with the expedition and told me that he would send me a scanned copy of the permit via email once it was ready. I had no other option but to believe him.
Then, on February 24, 4 days late to my initial schedule, I finally got onto the bus to Besisahar and started the actual journey. Reaching Upper Pisang the next day, I lost yet another day to unrestful weather and waited it out in a lodge. Finally, on the 26th, I started the march toward base camp. After having to carry a hefty lot of load on my back, making sure proper acclimatization, having one failed attempt and turning back from only 30 meters to summit and one rest day, and skipping bad weather windows, it was the 5th of March when I finally reached the summit.
But my winter permit was invalidated by then, as the winter period in Nepali climbing permits spans from December to February. So, my climb was not legally clean anymore. After coming back to mobile network, I tried to contact Nabin and his agency to get the winter permit I paid him for and talk about the current situation. But I found all his phone numbers to be switched off. He was totally unreasonable and wasn't replying to any of my texts on WhatsApp either. So I was on thin ice from the beginning but am now completely under.
Now, at this point, to make this climb valid according to the rules and regulations and to claim the summit properly, I needed to get another permit for the spring season, which is priced much higher than the winter one. Throughout the last couple of days, I talked with multiple agencies about issuing a spring permit again. But the estimated cost was around 700 USD, on top of what I already paid. So, when I added up all the money I lost with all the money I will need in the coming week to survive in Kathmandu until my passport situation gets resolved AND the cost of this new permit, I found it to be very unrealistic for my current financial situation. Thus, I abandoned the luxury of claiming this wonderful summit by myself.
And right now I am taking help from the Tourist Police of Nepal to get a refund from Narbin and to get a travel permit issued from the Bangladesh Embassy to return to Bangladesh. Everything seems so overwhelmed and complicated, I am constantly running from one place to another to sort things out, but it feels so tiring now. Even the climb was easier than what I'm experiencing now in Thamel. I am exhausted honestly. Still dont know when I will be able to sit on a return flight to dhaka.
Please pray for me and wish me luck, so that I can overcome this mountain of obstacles in front of me right now, just like the previous one, and come back home safely. Thank you again for being with me.
