Narender Yadav (25), who allegedly faked Mt Everest summit in 2016 is all set to receive prestigious Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award, the highest adventure sports honor of India. The news brought to our attention when an Indian climber Parth Upadhyaya posted about it. The Nepalese newspaper Kantipur was one of the first to expose few years back at the same time when other Indian couple found fraudulantely obtaining everest summit certificate using a fake summit photo. The summit picture submited by Narender exposed fake as it shows, the clean down suit on the summit, shadow points in the wrong direction, climbing helmet on the summit, no headlamp on his head, the tube missing from his oxygen mask and no reflection in his goggles. Yadav was 21 when he claimed to have reached to the summit of Mt Everest. Now he claims to have reached the summit of five out of the seven highest mountains of each continents.
Dhamey Tenzing Norgay, son of the legendary Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, the prestigious award which is named after his father’s name, wrote “Hitting new heights of lows on Everest. If indeed Mr. Yadav did fake his Everest summit, which seems to be the case, then no matter what his other outdoor adventure accomplishments, he should not be considered for the prestigious Tenzing Norgay Sherpa National Adventure Award on the grounds of “lack of integrity” for starters.”
Lakpa Sherpa, a Nepali climber, with seven Everest summits, who was eyewitness that day, saw Yadav and another woman at the Balcony (8400 m) of the Mt Everest, wrote “I never want to involve myself in such controversial topics but this thing is so disrespectful to all the climbers who actually put in their efforts and dedication in achieving such heights. It’s really sad and hurtful as a climber to see such things. There was also another lady climber with him. They were in bad situation at balcony without guides and running low oxygen. They were lucky that our Sherpa guides found them and brought them back safely by giving them their own oxygen.”
He further added, “In 2016, Narendra Yadav was not able to summit the Mt. Everest because unexpected reasons. I was in the rescue team that season and some of our Sherpa guides brought him down from Everest Balcony (8400m). He was not able to further from the Balcony. I was so shocked to see the summit certificate in his hands. It is the mistake of Nepal’s operating company, how they had applied for the summit certificate to the officials. So I believe he should not nominate and get such a prestigious award. So proper judgement should be done during the distribution of such paragon award. Otherwise it will be a disrespectful to all the great Indian climbers. For further verification, DM me.”
Priyanka Mangesh Mohite, who is also the first Indian woman to climb Mt Makalu (8481 m) the fifth highest mountain in the world, wrote “Even after climbing Mt Everest, Lhotse and being first Indian woman to climb Mt Makalu what else I have to do to get Tenzing Norgay National Award. Should I be fake like Narender or have some political background or nepotism kid or should I climb Mt. Everest twice like Anita Devi?”
It seems there is a big politics in the name of honor and awards in India, Bharat Ratna for Tenzing Norgay has been a long overdue though it was a election promise for the candidate of the Prime Minister of India then, Narendra Modi with the Gurkha community in Darjeeling, back in 2014. There are several career mountaineers with multiple summits of eight thousanders and seven thousanders yet to be recognized while at the same time alleged mountain faker is a nominee of the prestigious award.