Harish Chandra Singh Rawat


Harish Chandra Singh Rawat was a mountaineer who climbed the Mt. Everest in 1965. He was one of the 9 summiters of the first successful Indian Everest Expeditions that climbed Mount Everest on May 1965 led by Captain M S Kohli,,,, ,,. He is the seventh Indian man and twenty second man in world that climbed Mount Everest. On May 24th 1965 Vohra and Ang Kami Sherpa together reached the top of Mount Everest
On May 29, 12 years to the day from the first ascent of Mount Everest the fourth and last summit team with Major H. P. S. Ahluwalia and Phu Dorjee Sherpa, Rawat reached on the summit. This was the first time three climbers stood on the summit together.

Biography

Rawat participated in a number of expeditions including Nanda Devi, Sunanda Devi, Kanglacha, Hathi Parbat, Tirsuli, Rathong, Nanda Khat and Nun Kun.
In 1962, he led a party, including Sonam Wangyal, another Everester of the 1965 expedition, to Kanglacha, 30 miles south of Leh. In 1963, Rawat climbed Hathi Parbat and a year later he was part of the Tirsuli and Sunanda Devi expedition. In the pre-Everest preparations, he climbed Rathong.
Rawat also participated in a joint ascent by the Indian intelligence and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to the Nanda Devi peak to test the Chinese missile program development, and later worked for social welfare in Uttarakhand. He died of a lung cancer in New Delhi, aged 74. He was vice president of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation.

Honors and Awards

He was awarded Arjuna award and Padma Shri for his achievements.