37 years ago, India's first woman climber Bachendri Pal scaled everest

Bachendri Pal was only 29 years old when she became the first Indian woman to conquer Mt Everest on May 23, 1984.

Bachendri’s achievement since then has inspired many to walk on her path in the future. The achievement put her in the league of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, the first men on Everest.

“Vertical sheets of frozen ice, cold winds blowing at the speed of about 100 km per hour, and temperatures touching minus 30 to 40 degrees Celsius. On 23 May 1984, the team reached the summit of Mount Everest at 1:07 p.m. IST and Bachendri Pal created the history,”- reads an excerpt from Everest: My Journey to the top, a book authored by Bachendri Pal.

First Indian women to achieve the feat

Bachendri Pal was only 29 when she did the unthinkable. Hailing from the foothills of Himalaya, Uttarkashi, Pal gifted herself the Everest summit a day before her birthday. She was born on May 24, 1954, to a family of farmers in Nakuri village.

Her first encounter with the mountains was at the age of 12. During a school picnic, she along with her friends scaled a 13,123 feet high peak. But, she eyed Mount Everest.

Her journey to the top wasn’t a cakewalk though. Just a week before the summit, an avalanche had buried her tent five feet under the snow. The avalanche also left some injured, causing them to withdraw from the expedition. But, Pal stood strong to the challenge.

Pal along with Phu Dorjee, Lhatoo Dorjee, Sonam Palzor, and Ang Dorjee made it to the top, experienced the thrill of it as their dream came to reality.

Other women to conquer Everest

Before Pal, only four other women mountaineers had made it to Everest’s peak — Junko Tabei from Japan in 1975, Than Tang in 1976; Rutkiewicz Wanda in 1978, and Hannelore Schmatz in 1979.

Appreciations came flocking in

The Government of India honoured Pal with Padma Shri in 1984, Arjuna Award in 1986, National Adventure Award in 1994, and the Padma Bhushan in 2019. She also represented India in World Eminent Women Mountaineering Meet held in France in 1986, was listed in 1990’s Guinness Book of Records, and the Limca Book of Records in 1997.

Pal after the expedition

After the 1984 expedition, Pal successfully led several other expeditions. This includes – Indo-Nepalese Women’s Mount Everest expedition (1993), the Great Women’s Rafting Voyage (1994), the first Indian Women Trans-Himalayan expedition (1997), Snowmen Trek in Bhutan (2011), Desert Safari expedition (2008,2015).

She has also been an inspiration and mentor to Premlata Agarwal, the first Indian woman to scale seven summits, R S Pal (climbed Everest at age 53), Arunima Sinha (First woman amputee climber) Binita Soren, and many more.

She also went on to write a book – Everest, My Journey to the top and led the Mission Gange expedition, which was lauded by PM Narendra Modi.

Bachendri Pal for three and a half decades served as the Chief of Adventure Programmes at Tata Steel, Jamshedpur. She was the Director of the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) after JRD Tata’s invite. She worked towards empowering youngsters and women to conquer their mountaineering dreams.

Pal retired from TSAF at the end of May 2019.