BHAWANIPATNA: His meagre earnings were not a deterrent for reaching new highs in life. Jogabyasa Bhoi, a Shiksha Sahayak from Kalahandi, has become the third person from Orissa to climb the Mt Everest. He belongs to the remote Rupra village under Narla block. The 32-year-old Jogabyasa struggled to raise funds for his expedition, but he never gave up and achieved the milestone in the end. With this feat, he became the third Oriya after Kalpana Dash and Ganesh Jena to have set foot on the Everest.He started from the base camp on May 2 and reached the summit at 9 am on May 19. “The experience was overwhelming. It was my dream to climb the Mount Everest,” he said.Earlier on January 11, Bhoi had conquered Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in South Africa. “The most important task of my life has been fulfilled,” gushed Jogabyasa at a felicitation ceremony organised by the Officers Club of Bhawanipatna on Thursday evening. On the occasion, Collector Roopa Mishra said Jogabyasa’s feat was rare and that should be an example for youths of Kalahandi. The name of his expedition was Spiritual Mt Everest Mission and his team comprised seven members with he being the lone Indian. Ace mountaineers Namgyal Sherpa and Pasang Sherpa were his guides. “My aim to make it a spiritual expedition has been achieved. I wanted to spread the message of spiritual leader Sri Aurobindo and I have done it,” he said. Narrating his experience, he said he had suffered snow blindness and frostbite and had to be air-lifted to Kathmandu during his return trek.Jogabyasa had attended the all India NIC adventurous camp at Nainital during his college days in 2003. In 2007, he completed advance mountaineering training conducted by Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling, and in 2009 he successfully participated in the Everest base camp test. He was subsequently selected for the Everest expedition but due to lack of sponsorship, he could not pursue his dream.He, however, did not give up and last year, he scaled the 20,184-foot Mt Kangri in Ladakh without oxygen. His Mt Everest expedition was supported by industrial houses like VAL, SAIL, Jindal and MCL besides the district administration.
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