What began as a moment of soaring triumph for Bengal’s mountaineering community swiftly turned into a dark chapter of heartbreak.
Within hours of etching their names in the Everest hall of fame, Subrata Ghosh and Rumpa Das, two intrepid climbers from Ranaghat’s Coopers Camp, met with misfortune high above the clouds.
Subrata Ghosh, 45, an assistant teacher at Kapasti Milnabithi High School in Bagda, North 24 Parganas, and Rumpa Das, 44, an English teacher at a Coopers Camp school in Nadia, had dreamt of standing on the roof of the world— and on Thursday, they did. But the price of that dream proved devastating.
Unlike most Everest summiteers who begin their final ascent in the pre-dawn hours, Subrata and Rumpa were delayed due to adverse weather. The late push to the peak proved fateful. Though both made it to the summit, the descent became a descent into danger.
Rumpa, despite falling ill on the way down, managed to return to base camp— her body weakened, but her spirit intact. Subrata, however, was not as fortunate. Stranded beneath the open sky with a Sherpa, he was exposed to the brutal elements of the death zone.
On Friday morning, the dreaded news was confirmed— Subrata Ghosh had died on Everest, his dream forever frozen in time.
The duo had undertaken the expedition inspired by veteran mountaineer Basant Singh Roy, a leader of the Mountaineering Association of Krishnanagar. Fellow climber Asim Kumar Mandal, 52, had already retreated from Camp 4 earlier due to deteriorating conditions.
Rumpa Das has now become the fifth Bengali woman to summit Everest, following in the footsteps of Shipra Majumdar, Chanda Gayen, Tusi Das, and Piyali Basak. Her survival is bittersweet, shadowed by the loss of her companion.
Subrata’s ascent had placed him alongside Bengal’s finest— Basant Singh Roy, Debashis Biswas, and Malay Mukhopadhyay. But now, his name echoes in grief, not glory. The mountaineering fraternity is reeling.
Everest veteran Malay Mukhopadhyay admitted he feared the worst from the start. “I sensed trouble. Unfortunately, it came true. Fatigue is unforgiving on Everest,” he said.
Debashis Biswas, another Everest conqueror, underscored the critical error. A late summit push. “A four-to-five hour delay at the start is dangerous. Oxygen levels dwindle, fatigue mounts and the mountain offers no mercy. Unless we speak with Rumpa, we may never know what exactly went wrong. But on Everest, a single misstep can seal your fate,” he said.
Ranaghat now mourns its fallen son — a teacher, a climber, a dreamer — whose final lesson was written in the snow and silence of the Himalayas.
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