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I’m sensing summit’s fishy here.
30-year-old Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod from India’s Maharashtra state reached the top of the world’s highest peak on May 23. Or so they say.
The duo were saluted for being the first Indian couple to summit Everest, but eight fellow mountaineers, if you can even call them “fellow” at this point, claim the whole thing’s BS. They say the two, who happen to be police officials, doctored their photographs.
The photos looks legit—they show the Rathods proudly unfurling the banner of the Pune police force—but Bangalore resident Satyarup Siddhanta claims they’re his images, and that the couple sneakily, cheekily, sillily, and plain wrongfully superimposed themselves with shots taken from way lower down on the mountain.
Here’s another hole: the couple appear to be wearing different colored climbing gear in different photographs of their alleged ascent. According to The Telegraph, a group of rival alpinists also from India’s Maharashtra state wonder, “Is it possible to change your costume or shoes and still not have frostbite?”
Nobody doubts the pair weren’t on Everest; they just say they didn’t get much further than Base Camp. For one, the pair did not arrive until early May, far too late to acclimatize for a summit attempt.
Makalu Adventures, the company who apparently helped the Rathods summit, says the accusations are baloney. In their opinion, the accusatory climbers are just being spoilsports.
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Satyarup Siddhanta says Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod digitally pasted their faces into his photos. Here Siddhanta stands (I think happily...) somewhere on Everest. Satyarup Siddhanta photo.
A chap who goes by Mr. Shelke, and who claims the couple were his former climbing “students,” says it’s not the first time their summits have been suspicious. He says they’ve claimed to have reached the top Australia’s ten highest peaks, but that that can’t be true. Shelke has grilled the sherpas who supposedly accompanied them on their ventures, but ultimately says, “We have to trust our Sherpas…There has been no hanky-panky here.”
The Hindustan Times praised the couple for their record shortly after the feat, highlighting that they said the following in a press conference: “We were committed that we would not give birth to a child until we climb Mt Everest…With pride now, we want to become parents.”
In the same conference, The Rathods said they were saddened after hearing three Indian nationals lost their lives in the climb, but that once they reached the top themselves, they were overjoyed. Heavy stuff for something that might all be hogwash.
Before you say the news sources reporting the supposed scandal aren’t trustworthy themselves, know that it’s not just Vice and Mashable who are on the couple’s case; the BBC are sounding the alarms too. Sky News is also getting involved, saying that while the fraud doesn’t amount to a criminal offense, the Nepalese government could decide to revoke their certificates and ban them from mountaineering in the country for at least a decade.
Not surprisingly, the Rathods could not be reached for comment. They’re probably busy ‘shopping themselves on Saturn.
