It was Sanjay Pandit’s dream to scale the Seven Summits, the highest mountains of each of the seven continents; and he had climbed Mt. Everest (8848m, Asia), Mt. Kilimanjaro (5895m, Africa), Mt. Elbrus (5642m, Europe) and Mt. Aconcagua (6962m, South America) in last few years. Earlier this month, he left for the USA in order to continue working on his mission, this time to scale the highest mountain in North America — Mt. Denali (6190m) — in Alaska, but never returned.
On June 7th, Sanjay Pandit along with his teammates — both named Tashi Sherpa — left for Alaska and reached Denali Base Camp on the same day. By 14th, they had reached Camp 5 from where they headed for the summit the next day at 9:45 AM. In an interview with online portal Diyo Post, Tashi Sherpa told that before the three of them could reach the summit, Sanjay suddenly started feeling unwell. They contacted Ranger Force rescue team who were quick enough to respond. The rescue team reached where the three climbers were waiting for them and helped them descend. But before they could reach Camp 5, it was too late and Sanjay breathed his last at about 4 0’clock in the morning on Friday, June 16th.
According to Tashi, Sanjay wanted to see his wife before he died. He kept on saying, “Malai mero shrimati bhayeko thauma puryaideu” (Take me to my wife).
The 28-year-old ultra-runner turned mountaineer had run from Swargadwari in Pyuthan to Kathmandu in 47 hours 20 minutes in 2009. In 2010, he had run from Jiri to Kathmandu in 27 hours. He had also run from Khasa to Kathmandu and Kathmandu to Gorkha during his ultra-running days.
On July 20th, 2014; he had stayed half naked at Mt. Elbrus (Europe) for 6 minutes and 3 seconds at the temperature of -60 degrees, to set a new record.
He was honored with various awards, including National Youth Award by the Ministry of Youth and Sports in 2014.
