An Indian climber who was banned from Everest after faking a summit of the world’s highest mountain six years ago has successfully reached the peak legitimately.
Narender Singh Yadav, 26, claimed to have reached the top of the 8,849-meter mountain in May 2016, but his photos were later shown to have been digitally altered.
The Nepal government decided to revoke recognition of his feat after an investigation.
They concluded that the photographs evidence the climber had used to “prove” he reached the top of the world’s tallest mountain were faked.
When the news broke, the Indian mountaineering community and the country’s media reacted with outrage.
Yadav and two other climbers were issued a six-year ban backdated to 2016, and this was the first year he was able to return to the mountain.
“I had done everything for the award,” he told The New York Times. “But suddenly, they told me, ‘Deposit the coat and go home.’”
Yadav said his parents were humiliated by relatives and neighbours in the village they are from and that villagers called him a “fraud,” he said. “For them, it was a matter of shame.”
Yadav maintains he reached the summit but that the expedition leader doctored his photos and posted them on social media after he was nominated for India’s prestigious Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award in 2020.
His ban ended on May 20. Seven days later, he was on the summit — this time with an ample cache of photos and videos to prove his feat.