Tenzing Rock

Someone has said that climbing is as close as we can come to flying and if you want to experience that feeling for once in your life Tenzing Rock is the perfect place. Darjeeling is known for its tea garden and scenic but it is also a place where future mountaineers are trained but if you don’t want to go through the sweat breaking training session you can get a glimpse of mountaineering life. Tenzing Rock located on Lebong Cart Road of Darjeeling, a 20min car ride from Chowk Bazar or the main town.

It is a gigantic natural rock in Darjeeling is named after Tenzing Norgay, the man who created history by climbing the Everest first time along with Edmund Hillary in 1953. Opposite to this is the Gombu Rock named after Nawang Gombu, nephew of Tenzing who was the first person to climb the Everest twice, once in 1963 and then in 65. He took over as the Director of Field Training at Himalayan Mountaineering Institute after Tenzing retired in 1976. Both these rocks are used for rock climbing training by HMI.

Tenzing rock and Gombu rock also known as monkey rock are generally used by the trainees of HMI and pro climbers. Left side of the Tenzing Rock is really steep and can gives you chills Tenzing himself used to practice climbing on this rock. During a visit of erstwhile Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Tenzing demonstrated a climb on this rock without any safety equipment. You really need to have a skill of a lizard to do this. There is a less steep side of the rock where tourist and amateur can climb the rock with the help of given gear and paying a nominal amount.

While climbing the Tenzing there will be guide who guides the tourist about what how they shall climb. The climb will be quite difficult since most of the people who are climbing are doing it for the first time and they will be willing to give up but the guide tend to encourage them to go on and once they reach at the top of the rock they can see the nearby places with in a whole new level. Apart from monsoon when the rock tends to be slippery and can be risky to climb all other season is perfect for rock climbing.

The thrill of reaching at a certain height and while looking down knowing that you have climb that height on your know. The adrenaline rush you get after climbing Tenzing Rock will give you a new outlook towards the world of mountaineering and there is a quote saying ‘It’s not the mountain we conquer but ourselves’ although Tenzing Rock is small compared to other great mountain but still it a start of overcoming ones fear of height and believing ones potential. The climb at the Tenzing Rock will boost the confidence level of the climber. Many tourists don’t know about this rock and bypass this area but Tenzing Rock is one of those places where you can take one step towards the adventurous world.