Narender Singh Yadav

Narender Singh Yadav (born 15 December 1994) is an Indian mountaineer. He is best known for his controversial climbing expedition to Mount Everest in May 2016, where he claimed to have summited the mountain but had recognition of this attempt stripped years later after discrepancies were noticed which indicated he had faked the summit, leading to his 2020 Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award being revoked and a ban from the mountain for six years from the climbing date by the Nepali government in 2021. In May 2022, soon after his ban expired, he returned to Everest and successfully reached the summit with ample proof that he had actually done so.

Biography and career Narender Singh Yadav was born on 15 December 1994. He hails from Nehrugarh village in Rewari district, Haryana, and is the son of Indian Army soldier Krishnachand. He had studied for his MA at Starex University in Gurgaon district.

Everest climbs and controversy In 2016, he joined that year's Seven Summit Treks Everest Expedition as a climber on a three-member team (out of the 14-15 total on the expedition). Yadav had reportedly previously attempted to summit the mountain in 2014 and 2015 but could not do so because of the threat of avalanches. He had claimed to successfully reach the peak of Everest on this expedition, which would have made him the second-youngest Indian to do so. However, his team leader, Naba Kumar Phukon, would later claim that he had never certified his summit; according to him, Yadav and his teammate Seema Rani Goswami were struggling to climb due to fatigue and acute altitude sickness, and needed to be rescued by Sherpa guides after they continued into the "death zone" beyond Camp IV (the highest camp on the mountain) despite their condition; a number of rescuers concurred with this account.

Yadav, who continues to insist that his 2016 attempt was legitimate, said that he and his parents faced humiliation from other people in his village. He decided to climb Everest again, training for two years amidst the restrictions introduced to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.