Piyali Basak, a debt-trapped mountaineer from Hooghly's Chandernagore who has conquered six of the 10 highest peaks in the world, opened a stall at a bookfair in her hometown to guide people in rock climbing and sell mountaineering equipment.
Piyali, 32, took this path to try and repay a mountain of debt. The climber has to pay Rs 80 lakh incurred to achieve her climbing dreams.
"Selling mountaineering items is an auxiliary part of opening the stall. So many people go to the hills and mountains as tourists, as rock climbers and for trekking. I want to open a platform where people can get low-cost training on rock climbing before they approach uphill. This stall at the book fair was my first step to campaign for my new effort," said Piyali, also a primary school teacher. '
Piyali started conquering peaks above 8,000 metres in 2018, by scaling Mount Manaslu (8,163m), the eighth-highest peak in the world.
In 2021, she again scaled the world's seventh-highest peak Dhaulagiri (8,167m). In 2022, she conquered the highest peak in the world Mount Everest (8,848m) without supplementary oxygen. After two days of conquering Everest, she scaled the fourth-highest Mount Lhotse (8,516).
In the same year, she tried to conquer Mount Cho-Oyu (8,188m), which stands on the China Tibet–Nepal Province No. 1 border, and is the sixth-highest peak in the world. However, bad weather made her return before climbing the last 100 metres of the peak.
In 2023, she conquered Mount Annapurna (8,091m) and Mount Makalu (8,481m), which are the 10th-highest and fifth-highest peaks in the world, respectively.
Unfortunately, Piyali is yet to receive her certificate of recognition for scaling the two peaks last year because she failed to clear a due worth Rs 30 lakh to the agency under which she went for the expedition.
"I was seriously injured while returning to the base camp after conquering Makalu as I went to save another mountaineer from abroad. I had to go for expensive treatment in Nepal. I have to pay Rs 30 lakh to the Nepal-based agency to get my certificates. I don't know when I can gather the amount," she said.
Rs 30 lakh apart, Piyali had to repay another Rs 50 lakh borrowed from various banks to complete her summits at Mount Everest, Mount Lhotse and Mount Dhaulagiri.
Piyali said she had applied for financial support to chief minister Mamata Banerjee and various other organisations but nothing has come as a solution.
"Bank interest is increasing every month.... I don't know what to do.... Now I'll go to Delhi to plead for support from our Prime Minister Narendra Modi," said the teacher, who will leave for Delhi on Tuesday.
The stall at the book fair was her way of earning some income, she said. The 10-day-long Chandernagore book fair ended on Monday.
Piyali said the venture was not satisfactory in terms of selling trekking gear, but she was happy to meet at least 200 people at the fair, including parents of children, who showed interest in her proposed platform to train aspiring climbers.
"I don't know how many people will finally join my platform. But I liked my interactions. I plan to open a similar stall at the Calcutta Book Fair too," she said.
She added that she wanted to arrange affordable trekking gear and train young climbers at low rates compared to other institutions.
"I am a mountaineer from a very humble background and I know it requires huge funds to achieve dreams of scaling peaks. I want my platform to help the younger generation fulfil their mountaineering dreams at a low cost," she said.
Chandan Kumar Ghoshal, a 74-year-old surgeon and currently the vice-president of the Bengal unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), called Piyali an asset of Bengal and India. "We want the state and the central governments to positively help this courageous young mountaineer," said Ghoshal.
