NEW DELHI: Colonel Ranveer Singh Jamwal is known as an ace mountaineer, but very few are aware of his military prowess. Colonel’s mountaineering skill were put to use on the intervening night of August 29 and 30 in positioning the soldiers in dominating locations in the crucial Spanggur Gap.
Having the understanding of movements in such high altitude, he was entrusted with planning and leading of operations.
Talking about it, the Army said, “On the intervening night of August 29 and 30, PLA troops who had earlier arrived during military and diplomatic engagements violated the previous consensus and carried out provocative military movements to change the status quo. Indian troops pre-empted this PLA activity on the Southern Bank of Pangong Tso Lake and undertook measures to strengthen our positions to change facts on ground.”
Colonel Jamwal, originally belonging to the Jat Regiment of the Indian Army was involved in the operations on the 16,000ft high mountain peaks.
Jamwal was best suited for the task as he is the only officer to have summated the 8,848 metre high Mountain Everest along with other highest points of all seven continents.
Colonel Jamwal, a native of Jammu and Kashmir, is a son of an army soldier and joined the forces as a sepoy. He has been awarded with the country’s highest Adventure Award, ‘The Tenzing Norgay Award’ (Equivalent to Arjuna Award) in 2013 and is today counted amongst the world’s best mountaineers.
The Indian Mountaineering Foundation, apex mountaineering body of the country, has also awarded him with the IMF Gold Medal in 2017.