After a silent beginning two months ago, the Army will establish a full-fledged and permanent mountaineering institute at Siachen base camp. The new establishment will be christened “Army Mountaineering Institute, Siachen (AMIS)” and may be formally inaugurated by Defence Minister AK Antony when he visits the glacier for the first time in April-May.

Two months ago, under orders from Army chief Gen JJ Singh, a contingent of 20 troops and officers from Maratha Light Infantry trained at the glacier to prepare for an expedition to Mount Everest that begins on March 21. This will be the Army’s fourth expedition to the Everest.

An Army officer told The Indian Express, “For the first stage acclimatisation, the team stayed in the base camp for six days. After a week, the team moved to the Northern Glacier where it carried out seven days of training, including long glacier trekking of 10-11 hours each day. Two more phases of training were done after that, mainly comprising glacier marches.”

Under the proposed plan, expeditions from any of the three services will undergo basic and advanced mountaineering courses at the Western Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Himachal Pradesh, followed by “warm-up” expeditions to peaks such as Mount Bhagirathi and Mana in the Garhwal Himalayas. The last phase of training, which includes extreme weather endurance, will take place at the AMIS in Siachen.