Black Rock Expedition

In 1984, I was working as Regimental Medical Officer of 2/3 Gorkha Rifles at North Sikkim. I was hand picked for an extremely difficult expedition called Black Rock expedition and I was the only medical officer besides six Sherpa ( from Nepal and Tibet, renowned for their skill in mountaineering ) and one Major ( Major RK Sharma ) as the team leader. The Sherpa selected were well known mountaineers and had already scaled Kangchenjunga, and the team leader was from Himachal Pradesh well known for its trekking, climbing and skiing but I was from Andhra Pradesh with zero experience in mountaineering who saw mountains for the first time after joining army in 1982. I was chosen for this adventurous expedition after my participation in a Gurkha khud race...hill racing ( Cross country race in hills). I was asked to choose my own medical assistant but the two nursing assistants sent to me were not found fit for this dangerous expedition because one of them was overweight and the other was an alcoholic. I selected one of the Sherpa and trained him to give injections, do wound dressings and give essential life saving drugs after my intensive training. We carried adequate shakkarpara ( fried flour cookies coated with crystallized sugar) and canned minced meat for our journey and of course, extreme cold weather boots, jackets and sleeping bag besides our balaclava, snowboard goggles and route maps and compass to know our direction. It was seven days of non stop expedition with brief halts for taking rest. We scaled highest snow clad mountains and cliffs of North Sikkim in this period. We were given the task to find whether one particular route could be taken by our enemy to reach North Sikkim... and we reported yes, they can... at the cost of sustaining heavy casualty due to it being most dangerous terrain...it was a virgin land and a virgin route...I was awarded army commander's commendation card for this most dangerous expedition called Black Rock Expedition...Col Pendyala Pradeep, Anaesthesiologist.