Bachendri Pal

was the first Indian woman to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest, in 1984. Her father was a border tradesman who took atta and rice from India to Tibet on mules, horses and goats. He eventually settled near Uttarkashi, where he married and they raised their five children. Bachendri, the middle child, was born in 1954. Always a rebellious child, she loved wandering by herself in the Garhwal Himalayas. Her family was often entertained by her dreams of travelling in airplanes and meeting famous people. She was independent and fearless, and first tasted the excitement of the high altitudes when a group of 12-year-old classmates climbed to 4000m (13123 feet) during a picnic, could not come down by nightfall, and spent the night there without food or shelter.

At 13, like most Garhwal girls she was expected to leave school and help in the house, but she studied on her own at night until her determination impressed her family to let her finish high school. She still earned money by sewing in her spare time. The principal of her school persuaded her family to send her to college, where she beat both boys and girls in rifle shooting and other competitions.

Her B.A. thrilled her parents, who wanted her to be the first girl in the village with a higher degree. She eventually an M.A. in Sanskrit and then a B.Ed. In spite of these achievements the job offers that came in were only for low-paid, temporary, junior-level positions, so Bachendri applied to the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering for a course. She was judged the best student in the course, and marked down as 'Everest material', much to her surprise.

In an advanced camp at NIM in 1982, she climbed Gangotri I (6,672 m/ 21900 ft) and Rudugaira (5,819 m / 19091 ft). Her mentor was Brigadier Gyan Singh, director of the National Adventure Foundation, who set up an Adventure Club for young women to learn mountaineering skills. It also provided an instructor's job for Bachendri, whose family was under economic pressure.

India's fourth expedition to Everest was scheduled for 1984, and only four women in the world had ever scaled the peak. The '84 team consisted of seven women and eleven men, and this was Bachendri Pal's first real expedition. After an avalanche, injuries, and other problems, she stood on the summit of Sagarmatha (the Nepali name for the highest peak in the world) at 1:07 pm on 23 May, 1984. 29,028 ft, or 8848 m.

The year after this accomplishment, Pal led an all-woman team to Everest, and in 1994, led an all-woman rafting team down the Ganga, from Hardwar to Calcutta. In 1997, Bachendri Pal was the leader for an all-woman, seven month traverse of the Himalayas, which, unfortunately, fell through. She is currently employed as deputy divisional manager (adventure programmes), Tata Steel Adventure Foundation.

Most of the information on this page is taken from Bachendri Pal's autobiographical chapter in Leading Out: Mountaineering Stories of Adventurous Women. (Great book! )

Newsclips & Links

The other women on the first all-woman Indian Everest expedition range from Chetna Sahu, a 29-year-old housewife, to Kokila Sudha, an advocate. Rediff.

Interview with Pal, on Rediff.

Bachendri Pal to visit Kargil. Indian Express. July 1999.

Other South Asian women mountaineers:

Nepalese Nimi Sherpa, who has overcome extreme cultural obstacles by first following her husband who was a guide on a French expedition at the time, up Lhotse. Surreptitiously she climbed each day, from one camp to the next, with a solemn promise to her husband to descend the following day, until she finally made it to the top. Today she is a mountain guide in her own right.

Shadmina Khanun from Pakistan

Santosh Yadav, the second Indian woman to scale Everest, repeated the feat when she led an expedition via the East face of the mountain in 1999.

Dicky Dolma and Deepu Sharma also scaled Everest in the expedition led by Bachendri Pal in 1993.