Just a day earlier, on May 18, 2004, the first group of the Indian Navy's team, comprising of Surgeon Lieutenant Viking Bhanoo, a Navy doctor, and Leading Medical Assistants' Rakesh Kumar and Vikas Kumar had tasted success when they too summitted Mt. Everest from the North face, using the North-East ridge to the top of the mountain.

Applauding the team on its success, Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Madhvendra Singh said, "Having endured the numbing cold, blinding blizzards and life threatening situations, the summiting of Everest is a tribute to the tenacity, resilience and fighting spirit of the team in achieving their objective - traits that are highly cherished in the Navy. It also illustrates the tremendous effort put in by those who worked behind the scenes, planning the expedition, providing logistical sustenance, and supporting the climbers all the way to their final ascent." He further added, "The spectacular success of this expedition epitomizes the spirit of adventure in the Navy, and marks the revival of mountaineering in the service".

With this feat, the Indian Navy, in its maiden expedition to Mt. Everest, not only became the First from the Indian Armed Forces to have succeeded in scaling via the North face, but in the process also became the only ' All Navy ' team to have done this from the North face, technically considered a far more challenging and difficult route.

"This success is the result of dedicated work by our mountaineers and support team at the Naval Headquarters. These tough youngsters have braved all sorts of difficulties in the process of building up their skills, endurance and experience base over the past two years," said Commodore Amarjit Bajwa, Principal Director, Adventure and Sport, Indian Navy. "They have done the Navy proud." he added.