On July 26, 2015, Ganesh Jena started climbing the 5642 meter high Mount Elbrus in Moscow, Russia. A six-member team from India headed by Ganesh unfurled tiranga (the national flag) at 8:45 PM on 1 August 2015. Earlier in a grand ceremony former Sports and Youth Services director Dr Bimalendu Mohanty and former assistant director Ashok Mohanty flagged off Jena. He is the first Indian climber who did a traverse climbing (to climb a mountain by one route and come down by another) of the Elbrus from South side and returned to North side.