Bachendri Pal : The lady mountaineer, from India

Bachendri Pal was born on 24th May 1954. She was born to a Botiya family in Uttakarshi of Uttarakhand. She started mountaineering when she was 12, scaling the local 3999 m mountain. Her family strongly believed that she should not be a mountaineer and should be a school teacher.
She was successful in joining a course at the Nehru Institute of mountaineering. She scaled many smaller peaks and was selected to climb Everest as part of a mixed gender team of mountainers.

The climb began on March 1984. There were 6 women and 11 male mountaineers. They went through great hardship on the ascent. It was snowy, ice gave way, and an avalanche swallowed their camp on the night of 15th May 1984.

They continued climbed the mountain and after 10 weeks, on 23 rd May at 1:07pm, Bachendri Pal set history as the first woman to climb Everest.She was awarded the Padma Sri, India’s fourth highest civilian award.

After the expedition on Everest in 1984, she returned and scaled Mount Everest again with an all woman team of mountaineers in 1985. She did so again in 1993. She also led an 18 woman raft expedition, in which 3 rafts sailed from Haridwar to Calcutta on the Ganga. They covered 2155 km in 39 days.

In 1997, she led 8 women from the eastern side of the Himalayas at Arunachal Pradesh to the western side at Siachen Glacier. The team reached Indira Col — the northmost tip of India at altitude 6126.5 metres. They covered 4500 km in 225 days, touching 40 mountain passes : The first country to do so.

She helped the relief and rescue operations in Uttakarshi during the 2013 North India floods in the Himalayas. She also taught survival skills to all of her villagers. She currently lives in Uttakarshi and continues to spread inspiration.