The Indo-Argentine mountaineering expedition that summited Mt Abi Gamin and Mt Kamet in Uttarakhand last month was flagged in by Gen Dhiraj Seth, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The joint team reached the top of Mt Abi Gamin (7,355 metres) on 17 September and Mt Kamet (7,756 metres) on 21 September.

Indo-Argentine mountaineering expedition tops two Himalayan peaks

Mt Kamet is the third-highest peak in India, after Mt Kanchenjunga and Mt Nanda Devi.

It stands in Chamoli district, with Abi Gamin its neighbour on the same massif, close to the border with Tibet. A British party under Frank Smythe made the first ascent of Kamet in 1931. On both climbs the team worked through extreme cold and high winds, across snowfields, steep rock sections and crevasses, the ministry said.

The two summits came four days apart. The ministry credited the result to physical endurance, technical proficiency, mental resilience and close coordination within the team.

35 climbers led by Lt Col Chirag Chatterjee

Lieutenant Colonel Chirag Chatterjee led the 35-member team of 25 Indian Army and 10 Argentine Army personnel.

The team was flagged off from the Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi on 21 August 2026. Lieutenant General Ajay Ramdev, Director General Integrated Training, conducted that send-off, according to reports at the time, and described such joint ventures as a way of building mutual trust and professional understanding between the armed forces of friendly nations.

Joint climbs build interoperability between the two Armies

The ministry said the successive expeditions have strengthened professional cooperation, interoperability, camaraderie and mutual trust between the Indian and Argentine Armies. They have also given both forces experience of operating together in demanding high-altitude environments.

The flag-in came 11 days after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh received a NIMAS team that had completed the first recorded summits of 20 unclimbed peaks above 6,000 metres in Ladakh.

Third joint venture after Aconcagua and Mt Kun

The Indo-Argentine mountaineering expedition to Kamet is the third such venture between the two Armies. The first took a combined team up Mt Aconcagua (6,962 metres) in Mendoza, Argentina, in January 2025. The Indian Army announced that summit on 15 January, Army Day, with an eight-member Indian team under Lt Col Manoj Joshi. The Ministry of External Affairs lists the climb, held from 3 to 20 January 2025, among India's engagements with Argentina.

On the team's return, India's Ambassador to Argentina Dinesh Bhatia joined Gen Carlos Presti, Chief of the Argentine Army at the time, to felicitate the Indian climbers.

Mt Kun, August 2025

Mt Kun (7,077 metres) in the Suru Valley, Ladakh, followed in August 2025. Argentine troops reached its summit on 5 August that year, according to reports at the time, the first Himalayan summit for the Argentine Army's mountain troops.

The same peak drew an all-Indian Army party this July, when the Army Mount Kun Expedition put 27 climbers on the summit on 17 July, a single-day record for one team.