Bachendri Pal

Bachendri Pal (born 24 May 1954) is an Indian mountaineer, who in 1984 became the first Indian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.She is awarded the third highest civilian award Padma Bhushan by Government of India in 2019.

Early life 
Bachendri Pal was on born to a [[Uttarakhand Bhotiya|Bhotiya] family on 24 May 1954 in Nakuri, in the [Uttarkashi district] in the Indian state of [Uttarakhand]. She was one of five children to Hansa Devi, and Shri Kishan Singh Pal, – a border tradesman who supplied groceries from India to Tibet. She was born only five days before the first anniversary of the original ascension of Mount Everest by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary. She completed her M.A. and B.Ed. from D.A.V. Post Graduate College, Dehradun. She got her first taste of mountaineering thrill at the age of 12,  along with her friends, scaled a  high peak during a school picnic. On the invitation of her school principal, she was sent to college for higher studies and became the first girl to 1982, during her course at Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, she climbed Mt. Gangotri 1  and Mt. Rudragaria . In that time, she got employment as an instructor at the National Adventure Foundation (NAF), which had set up an adventure school for training women to learn mountaineering.

Pal encountered stiff opposition from her family and relatives when she decided to opt for a career as a professional mountaineer rather than as a schoolteacher. She soon found success in her chosen field, however.

After summitting a number of smaller peaks, she was selected to join India's first mixed-gender team to attempt an expedition to Mount Everest in 1984.

Ascent
In 1984, India had scheduled its fourth expedition, christened Everest'84, to Mount Everest. Bachendri Pal was selected as one of the members of the elite group of six Indian women and eleven (11) men who were privileged to attempt ascent to the Mount Everest (Sagarmatha in Nepalese). The news filled them with a sense of ecstasy and excitement. The 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".<ref name="My Journey to the Top">Book: '
st – My Journey to the Top, an autobiography published By National Book Trust, Delhi</ref> The team commenced its ascent in May 1984. Her team almost met disaster when an avalanche buried its camp, and more than half the group abandoned the ascent because of injury or fatigue. Bachendri Pal and the remainder of the team pressed on to reach the summit. Bachendri Pal recalls this accident: "I was sleeping in one of the tents with my teammates at Camp III at an altitude of . On the night of 15–16 May 1984, at around 00:30 hours IST, I was jolted awake; something had hit me hard; I also heard a deafening sound and soon after I found myself being enveloped within a very cold mass of material''".

On 22 May 1984, Ang Dorjee (the Sherpa Sirdar) and some other climbers joined the team to ascend to the summit of Mount Everest; Bachendri was the only woman in this group. They reached the South Col and spent the night there at Camp IV at the altitude of . On 23 May 1984, early morning at 6:20 a.m., they continued the ascent, climbing "vertical sheets of frozen ice"; cold winds were 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 history. She achieved this feat on the day before her 30th birthday, and six days before the 31st anniversary of the first ascension to Mount Everest.

After
Bachendri Pal continued to be active after ascending the highest peak in the world. She successfully led:
An "Indo-Nepalese Women’s Mount Everest Expedition – 1993" team comprising only women, which set benchmarks for Indian mountaineering when 18 people reached the summit including 7 women.
All women team of rafters in "The Great Indian Women's Rafting Voyage – 1994", which had 18 women in 3 rafts. It was a pioneering effort by women in successfully completing the journey in the river Ganges from Haridwar to Calcutta, covering 2155 km. in 39 days.
The "First Indian Women Trans-Himalayan Expedition – 1997", which was an effort by 8 women, who completed the trekking journey from the eastern part of the Himalayas from Arunachal Pradesh to the western part of the Himalayas at Siachen Glacier reaching Indira Col – the northernmost tip of India at the altitude of , covering more than 4500 km in '225' days by crossing more than 40 high Mountain passes. This is the first success by any country.

Social service
Bachendri Pal along with Premlata Agarwal and a group of ace climbers, which includes Mt. Everest summiteers have, quietly arrived in Uttarkashi and carried out relief and rescue operations in the remotest high altitude villages of the Himalayas that had been ravaged in the 2013 North India floods.

Awards and accolades
Bachendri Pal has been conferred with following awards and accolades:

Gold Medal for Excellence in Mountaineering by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (1984)
Padma Shri – the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India (1984)
Gold Medal by the Department of Education, Government of Uttar Pradesh, India (1985)
Arjuna Award by the Government of India (1986)
Calcutta Ladies Study Group Award (1986)
Listed in the Guinness Book of World Records (1990)
National Adventure Award by the Government of India (1994)
Yash Bharti Award by the Government of Uttar Pradesh, India (1995)
Honorary Doctorate from the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University (formerly known as Garhwal University) (1997)
She is the first recipient of Virangana Lakshmibai Rashtriya Samman 2013–14, which was given by the Ministry of Culture, Government of Madhya Pradesh, India at Gwalior on 18 June 2013 for her personal achievement in Adventure sports and women's upliftment in the country.

Padma Bhushan – the Third highest civilian award in the Republic of India (2019)

Books and publications
Author of "Everest – My Journey to the Top", (an autobiography published By National Book Trust, Delhi)

Further reading

See also
List of Mount Everest records of India
List of Mount Everest records
List of Mount Everest summiters by number of times to the summit
H.P.S. Ahluwalia
List of Indian women athletes
List of 20th-century summiters of Mount Everest

References

External links
Bachendri Pal Biography
Indian Autograph's profile

Category:1954 births
Category:Living people
Category:Indian female mountain climbers
Category:Indian mountain climbers
Category:People from Uttarkashi district
Category:Indian summiters of Mount Everest
Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports
Category:20th-century Indian women
Category:Sportswomen from Uttarakhand
Category:Mountain climbers from Uttarakhand
Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in sports