Odisha Mountaineer Kalpana Dash’s Mortal Remains Retrieved in Nepal; Her Outfits on Display at State Museum

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posted on 5 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Dash had scaled Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, in May 2008 and become a role model in Odisha.

Bhubaneswar: The mortal remains of Odisha’s first woman mountaineer Kalpana Dash were retrieved in Nepal five days after she passed away while descending from Mount Everest. Her mortal remains would be brought back to the Odisha capital on Wednesday.

“The search and rescue team of Sherpas was successful in tracing and bringing back the mortal remains of mountaineer Kalpana Dash to Base Camp 4 on Tuesday. Following completion of formalities at base camp Lukla, the body will be flown to Kathmandu on Wednesday," said Odisha’s sports department.

Dash had scaled Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, in May 2008 and become a role model in Odisha. She was part of a five-member team comprising mountaineers from the United States, Canada and Nepal. She had achieved the feat after two failed attempts in 2004 and 2006.

The 50-year-old mountaineer had left on her latest expedition to the summit on April 23 along with Liyamu Ma from China and Kanchhi Maya Tamang from Nepal. She scaled the summit successfully and was descending when an accident made her fall. A member of her team had informed her family back in Odisha’s Dhenkanal that she was climbing down slowly because of pain in one of her legs.

Dash is said to have died immediately after the fall and her body lay hanging. Her brother and two other family members had left for Kathmandu after the news of her death became known. The state government is bearing the cost of their travels and the expenses to be incurred in bringing Dash’s mortal remains back home.

Meanwhile, the authorities of Odisha’s State Museum in Bhubaneswar put up an exhibition of Dash’s mountaineering outfits. She had donated the outfits she had worn during her 2004 expedition to Mt Everest to the museum. Hundreds of visitors had a close look at the outfits and enquired about the efforts to retrieve the mortal remains of Dash.

In a career spanning a decade and a half, Dash had trekked many mountains in India and abroad, including in Europe, America and Australia, and conquered their peaks.