ITBP mountaineer gets national sports award on National sports day

NEW DELHI: An ITBP trooper, part of the rescue team during last year's Uttarakhand rain tragedy operations, was given Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award by President Pranab Mukherjee on the occasion of the National sports day.

The mountaineer of the border guarding force, Passang Tenzing Sherpa, is a record holder in climbing expeditions and has been doing so since a very young age.

He was given the award by the President along with other sportspersons at an event held in Rashtrapati Bhavan yesterday.

Sherpa was part of the special team that was last year pressed in as part of a rescue team deployed for operations in Uttarakhand, after a helicopter carrying IAF and NDRF personnel crashed near Kedarnath.

He holds a record for climbing Mount Kamet at the age of 18 while he also holds a distinction of successfully reaching the summit of world's tallest peak Mount Everest, twice without any oxygen supplements.

The 35-year-old trooper has been part of several rescue missions in avalanche and snow storm hit sites atop a number of peaks in the country.

Sherpa, who has conquered 17 different peaks till now, is also an instructor for ITBP officers, jawans and other personnel at the force's mountaineering and skiing institute in Auli in Uttarakhand.