Mount Carstensz: Musa, 2 others stuck in base camp for 5 days

Musa Ibrahim along with two Indian mountaineers has been stuck at the base camp of Mount Carstensz Pyramid in Papua New Guinea for the last five days due to bad weather.

His wife, Ummey Sharaban Tahura, says the three mountaineers had already run out of food and one of them was sick.

A helicopter was supposed to rescue them yesterday but the mission was called off due to inclement weather, Sharaban told The Daily Star last night, citing a text message from the first Bangladeshi to conquer the Mount Everest.

On May 30, Musa left Dhaka for his new venture “Bangladesh-India Friendship” to scale up Carstensz Pyramid, the highest mountain in Australia and Oceania (4,884 metre).

He and the two Indian mountaineers -- Satyarup Siddhanta and Nandita Chandra Shekhar -- began the expedition on June 1 and were expected to finish by June 18.

They conquered the mountain on June 13 and returned to the base camp the same day, Sharaban said. 

The next day, Musa, using a satellite phone, texted Sharaban and said they got stuck at the base camp due to bad weather and one of the two Indian mountaineers became sick.

He told her about yesterday's rescue mission that was called off in another text yesterday morning. The tour operator was supposed to send the helicopter, she said.

Food at the base camp was exhausted and things would take a turn for the worse if they were not rescued immediately, Sharaban said, calling for deploying army helicopters for rescuing the three mountaineers.

Mohammed Rafah Uddin, CEO of Everest Academy which was founded by Musa, said the tour operator was supposed to send another helicopter to the camp around 4:00am BST today.

In a Facebook post, Noor Ayesha, elder sister of Musa, said, “We are anxiously waiting to hear from Musa Ibrahim, Satyarup Siddhanta and Nandita. As per their last update via Satellite phone, all three have been stuck in the Base Camp since 13 June [limited or without food]. Let us kindly pray for their survival and safe return.”

Bangladesh has no embassy in Papua New Guinea.

Last night, The Daily Star tried to contact the Bangladesh embassy in Indonesia, a neighbour of Papua New Guinea, but no one from the embassy was available for comments.

Musa conquered the world's highest peak in 2010. He scaled up Mount Kilimanjaro of Africa in 2011, Mount Elbrus of Europe in 2013 and Mount Denali of North America in 2014.