It is easy to forget, from the heat of the plains, that Jammu is a mountain region with mountain people — and that some of them have stood on the very top of the world. The Tawi Trekkers, one of the region's oldest adventure clubs, exist partly to make sure nobody forgets. Their Duggar Gaurav Adventure Award, the club's highest honour, is reserved for the region's Everest climbers, and it has become the local benchmark for mountaineering achievement.
The roll of honour is genuinely impressive. The award has gone to Everest summiteers from the Jammu region, including some of the youngest to reach the peak and at least one climber who has summited the world's highest mountain more than once — the kind of feat that would be headline news in any city and ought to be celebrated loudly in this one. These are not abstract heroes from elsewhere. They are Duggar's own, raised in the same valleys the rest of us drive through on the way to a weekend in the hills.
What makes the awards matter beyond the medals is what they signal about the region's wider potential. Jammu sits on the doorstep of serious adventure terrain — the paragliding slopes around Sanasar, the trekking trails fanning out from Patnitop, the high passes and ridges of the Chenab and Pir Panjal belts. A culture that produces and honours world-class mountaineers is also a culture that can grow a real adventure-tourism economy: guides, gear, training, and the kind of trails that pull visitors who want to do more than photograph a viewpoint.
For young people in the city, the Duggar Gaurav names are worth knowing. They are proof that a path from a Jammu hillside to the summit of Everest exists — and that the region celebrates the people who walk it. The mountains, it turns out, are not just scenery. For some of Duggar's children, they are a calling.
For the aspiring climber: every Everester started on a small local trail. Sanasar and Patnitop are closer than you think — begin there.
