Early life

Bachendri Pal was born into a family of very moderate means, in 1954, in a village named Nakuri in kashi District of Garhwal Hari k govind hill at NIM, she climbed Gangotri I (21,900 ft) and Rudugaria (19,091 ft). Around that time, she got employment as an instructor at the National Adventure Foundation, which had set up an adventure school for training women to learn mountaineering.

The ascent

In 1984, India had scheduled its fourth expedition, christened “Everest ‘84’”, to the Mount Everest. Bachendri was selected as one of the members of the elite group of six Indian women and eleven men who were privileged to attempt an ascent to the Mount Everest, Sagarmatha in the Nepaleses

Nepali language

Nepali or Nepalese is a language in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.It is the official language and de facto lingua franca of Nepal and is also spoken in Bhutan, parts of India and parts of Myanmar...

. The news filled them with a sense of ecstasy and excitement. The elite team was flown to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal in March 1984; and from there the team moved onwards. Recalling her first glimpse of the Mount Everest, Bachendri once reminisced: “We the hill people have always worshipped the mountains … my overpowering emotion at this awe-inspiring spectacle was, therefore, devotional.” The team commenced its ascent in May, 1984. On the night of 15–16 May 1984, Bachendri and her tent mate were sleeping in one of the tents at Camp III at an altitude

Altitude

Altitude or height is defined based on the context in which it is used . As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The reference datum also often varies according to the context...

 of about 24,000 feet. At around 00:30 hours (IST), at around 24,000 feet, she was jolted awake; something had hit her hard and she also heard a deafening sound; and at the same time she found herself being enveloped within a very cold mass of material. A serac on the Lhotse glacier

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

, above the Camp III had slid down, and fallen on the camp raking havoc at the camp. Her tent mate using his knife could slash his way out of the mass of ice. He, thereafter, assisted Bachendri to dig her way out of the mess. Many members of the team were injured, and became unnerved; and they climbed down to the base camp. Despite an injury on her head, Bachendri chose to continue the ascent.

On 22 May 1984, some other climbers joined the team to ascent the summit of the Mount Everest. Bachendri was the only woman in this group. They continued the ascent climbing “vertical sheets of frozen ice”, cold winds sometimes blowing at the speed of about 100 km per hour, temperatures touching minus 30 to 40 degrees Celsius. On 23 May 1984, Bachendri reached the summit of Mount Everest, and at 1:07 PM IST

Indian Standard Time

Indian Standard Time is the time observed throughout India and Sri Lanka, with a time offset of UTC+05:30. India does not observe daylight saving time or other seasonal adjustments, although DST was used briefly during the Sino–Indian War of 1962 and the Indo–Pakistani Wars of 1965 and 1971...

, she was standing at the peak (29,084 ft) along with one other climber. The peak was small to accommodate two persons; and there was a vertical drop of thousands of feet all around the peak. So they first made themselves secured by anchoring themselves by digging their ice axes into the snow.

Bachendri then sat on her knees, touched the summit with her head in the Hindu

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 gesture of thanksgiving to the almighty; took an image of godess Durga

Durga

For the 1985 Hindi Film of Rajesh Khanna see DurgaaIn Hinduism, Durga ; ; meaning "the inaccessible" or "the invincible"; , durga) or Maa Durga "one who can redeem in situations of utmost distress" is a form of Devi, the supremely radiant goddess, depicted as having eighteen arms, riding a lion...

 and a copy of Hanuman Chalisha (the Book of Forty Verses of Hanuman

Hanuman

Hanuman , is a Hindu deity, who is an ardent devotee of Rama, a central character in the Indian epic Ramayana and one of the dearest devotees of lord Rama. A general among the vanaras, an ape-like race of forest-dwellers, Hanuman is an incarnation of the divine and a disciple of Lord Rama in the...

) and placed them in the snow. She remained on the summit for about 43 minutes, and took some photographs too. She became the first Indian woman to scale the Mount Everest, and the fifth woman in the world.

She climbed down and reached the base camp safely. Her achievement brought her congratulations from many quarters across the world. In India, the President, the Prime Minister, and J. R. D. Tata

J. R. D. Tata

Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata was a pioneer aviator and important businessman of India. He was awarded India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna in 1992 and the Legion of Honour from the French government in 1954.-Early life and education:J. R. D...

 congratulated her in personal.

Later life

She continued to be active after ascending the highest peak in the world. In 1985, she led an Indo-Nepalese Everest Expedition team comprising only women. The expedition created seven world records and set benchmarks for Indian mountaineering. Nine years later, in 1994, she led an all women team of rafters. The team coursed through the waters of the river Ganges, coveiing 2,500 km from Haridwar

Haridwar

Haridwar is an important pilgrimage city and municipality in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, India...

 to Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

.

External links

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