Man Accused Of Faking Everest Climb Reaches Summit Just Days After 6-Year Ban

A man who was banned from Mount Everest for six years after being accused of faking a summit of the world's highest mountain has managed to successfully climb the peak and capture ample evidence of it.

Narender Singh Yadav reached the top of the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) mountain Friday morning to "prove himself."

The Indian climber maintains his account of reaching the summit first in 2016 with two other climbers. He said the expedition leader doctored his photos and put them online after his nomination for India's prestigious Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award in 2020.

Nepal then put together a panel that concluded in 2021 that Yadav and Seema Rani Goswami, another climber in the same group, did not reach the top of Everest but made false climbing certificates.

The allegations against him led to the award being withheld, and the experience was "very painful for me and my family," Yadav said in an AFP News story posted on Yahoo Singapore.

Yadav was issued a six-year ban from climbing the mountain. It came to an end on May 20, and the 28-year-old climber was on top of Everest in about a week's time.

"Everest is a dream for all of us but Everest is life for me," Yadav told AFP News. "There were a lot of allegations on me... that's why I (had to) prove myself and climb Everest."

Pemba Rita Sherpa, a mountain guide and instructor working with expedition organizer Pioneer Adventure, said two guides accompanied Yadav on the climb to the top instead of the usual one to avoid any issues this time.

"We took many photos and videos of him," he said. "We have to speak what is real. It is about our Sherpas' reputation and the company's reputation."

Bhishma Raj Bhattarai, an official at the Tourism Department, which is the government agency responsible for issuing climbing permits and monitoring the climbs, told the Kathmandu Post, "We issued him the certificate of success the same day after verifying his climb. He presented documents with dozens of pictures and videos taken from different angles."

Yadav became the first Indian to reach the top in just six days.

"It feels really good. It's like I have been reborn," he told the outlet.

"People called me a fraud," he added. "I am happy now. I waited for many years to achieve this goal. This time I did it without acclimatizing."