Reena Kaushal Dharmshaktu (

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

: रीना कौशल धर्मशक्तू) is the first Indian woman to ski from coast of Antarctica to

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

covering a distance of 900 kilometers .

About

Dharmshaktu was born into a

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

family from

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

. She grew up in

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal ...

. She completed mountaineering courses at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling. Reena was an instructor with the US-headquartered

National Outdoor Leadership School NOLS is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoor skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions an ...

s (NOLS) that teaches outdoor skills to people. Her husband,

Love Raj Singh Dharmshaktu Love Raj Singh Dharmshaktu is an Indian mountaineer who has climbed Mount Everest seven times. He was awarded the Padma Shri by Government of India in 2014. Early life and background Dharmshaktu is from Bona village, Pithoragarh district, Utta ...

is also a mountaineer, who has reached the summit of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetic languages, Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is List of highest mountains on Earth, Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border ru ...

seven times.

Expeditions

Dharmashaktu has been on expeditions to Gangotri 1, did the first ascent of Argan Kangri. She also climbed Fluted Peak, Stok Kangri, Mt Nun and others. On 29 December 2009, Dharmshaktu made the historic ski-run as part of an eight-woman Commonwealth team (the Kaspersky Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition) which crossed a 900 kilometer Antarctic ice trek to reach the South Pole, marking 60th anniversary of the founding of the Commonwealth. She was selected from among 800 applicants and are from

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and the UK.

Awards

Dharmshaktu was awarded the

Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award, formerly known as the National Adventure Awards is the highest adventure sports honour of the Republic of India. The award is named after Tenzing Norgay, one of the first two individuals to reach t ...

2010 in land adventure category.

References

External links

Delhiite is first Indian woman to ski to South PoleFirst Indian woman to ski to the South Pole
People from Darjeeling district Living people Female polar explorers People from Punjab, India 1970s births Recipients of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award {{India-sport-bio-stub