Bachendri Pal (born 24 May 1954) is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

mountaineer Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

. She is the first Indian woman to climb the summit of world's highest mountain,

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

, what she did in 1984. She was awarded the third highest civilian award

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

in 2019.

Early life

Bachendri Pal was born to a

Bhotiya Bhotiya or Bhot ( ne, भोटिया, ) are groups of ethno-linguistically related Tibetan people living in the Transhimalayan region that divides India from Tibet. The word ''Bhotiya'' comes from the classical Tibetan name for Tibet, , . ...

family on 24 May 1954 in Nakuri village, in the

Uttarkashi district Uttarkashi District is a district of Garhwal division of the Uttarakhand state in northern India, and has its headquarters at Uttarkashi city. It has six Tehsils namely Barkot, Dunda, Bhatwadi, Chinyalisaur, Purola and Mori. The district cont ...

in the Indian state of

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

. She was one of five children to Hansa Devi, and Shri Kishan Singh Pal, – a border tradesman who supplied groceries from India to

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

. She was born only five days prior to the first anniversary of the original ascension of

Tenzing Norgay Tenzing Norgay (; ''tendzin norgyé''; perhaps 29 May 1914 – 9 May 1986), born Namgyal Wangdi, and also referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer. He was one of the first two people known to reach the su ...

and

Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reache ...

. She completed her M.A. and B.Ed. from D.A.V. Post Graduate College, Dehradun. She started mountaineering at the age of 12 when, along with her friends, she scaled a high peak during a school picnic. On the invitation of her school principal, she was sent to college for higher studies and, during her course at

Nehru Institute of Mountaineering The Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM India) in Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand is an institute that was established on November 14, 1965. The institute was formed to honor the great desire of President Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister o ...

, became the first female to climb Mount Gangotri and Mount Rudragaria in 1982. In that time, she became 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 chose a career as a professional mountaineer rather than a schoolteacher. However, she soon found success in her chosen field when, after summiting 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 scheduled its fourth expedition to Mount Everest, christened "Everest '84". Bachendri Pal was selected as one of the members of the group of six Indian women and eleven men to attempt the ascent of Mount Everest (''Sagarmatha'' in Nepalese). The team was flown to

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

, the capital of

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

, in March 1984, and from there the team moved onwards. Recalling her first glimpse of Mount Everest, Bachendri reminisced, "We, the hill people, have always worshipped the mountains... my overpowering emotion at this awe-inspiring spectacle was, therefore, devotional."''Everest – My Journey to the Top'', an autobiography published By National Book Trust, Delhi 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 attempt because of injury or fatigue. Bachendri Pal and the remainder of the team pressed on to reach the summit. Bachendri Pal recalled, "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 Ist or IST may refer to: Information Science and Technology * Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Science and Technology * Graduate School / Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Japan * Graduate School ...

, 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 Dorje (the

Sherpa Sherpa may refer to: Ethnography * Sherpa people, an ethnic group in north eastern Nepal * Sherpa language Organizations and companies * Sherpa (association), a French network of jurists dedicated to promoting corporate social responsibility * ...

''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 The South Col is a sharp-edged col between Mount Everest and Lhotse, the highest and fourth-highest mountains in the world, respectively. The South Col is typically swept by high winds, leaving it free of significant snow accumulation. Since 1950 ...

and spent the night there at Camp IV at the altitude of . At 6:20 a.m. on 23 May 1984, they continued the ascent, climbing "vertical sheets of frozen ice"; cold winds were blowing at the speed of about and temperatures touching . On 23 May 1984, the team reached the summit of Mount Everest at 1:07 p.m. 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 of 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 The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

from

Haridwar Haridwar (; ) is a city and municipal corporation in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, India. With a population of 228,832 in 2011, it is the second-largest city in the state and the largest in the district. The city is situated on the righ ...

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, covering 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 Jhajjar of the Himalayas from

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...

to the western part of the Himalayas at

Siachen Glacier The Siachen Glacier is a glacier located in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalayas at about , just northeast of the point NJ9842 where the Line of Control between India and Pakistan ends. At long, it is the longest glacier in the Kar ...

reaching

Indira Col , other_name = Indira Col West, Main Indira Col , photo = , photo_caption = , elevation_m = 5764 , elevation_ref = , traversed = , location = On the border between Chinese-controlled Trans-Karakoram Tract and Indian-controlled Siachen G ...

– the northernmost tip of India at the altitude of , covering more than in '225' days by crossing more than 40 high

Mountain passes A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both human and animal migrati ...

. This is the first success by any country.

Social service

Bachendri Pal, along with Premlata Agarwal and a group of ace climbers including Mount Everest summiteers, arrived in Uttarkashi and carried out relief and rescue operations in the remotest high altitude villages of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

that had been ravaged in the

2013 North India floods In June 2013, a mid-day cloudburst centered on the North Indian state of Uttarakhand caused devastating floods and landslides, becoming the country's worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. The rainfall received that month was far grea ...

Awards and accolades

Bachendri Pal has been conferred with following awards and accolades: *Gold Medal for Excellence in Mountaineering by the

Indian Mountaineering Foundation Indian Mountaineering Foundation is an apex national body which organize and support, mountaineering and rock climbing expeditions at high altitudes in the Himalayas. The organization also promotes and encourages schemes for related adventure acti ...

(1984) *

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

– the fourth highest civilian award of the

Republic of 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 ...

(1984) *Gold Medal by the Department of Education,

Government of Uttar Pradesh The Government of Uttar Pradesh (ISO: Uttar Pradesh Sarkār; often abbreviated as GoUP) is the subnational government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with the governor as its appointed constitutional head of the state by the President of I ...

, India (1985) *

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjuna, one ...

by the

(1986) *Calcutta Ladies Study Group Award (1986) *Listed in the

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

(1990) * National Adventure Award by the

(1994) *Yash Bharti Award by the

, India (1995) *Honorary Doctorate from the

Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University(HNBGU) (formerly known as Garhwal University) is a Central University, established in 1973, located in Srinagar, Uttarakhand in Northern India. The university is named after Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, ...

(formerly known as Garhwal University) (1997) *She is the first recipient of the Virangana Lakshmibai Rashtriya Samman 2013–14, which was given by the Ministry of Culture,

Government of Madhya Pradesh Government of Madhya Pradesh also known as the State Government of Madhya Pradesh, or locally as the State Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and its 52 districts. It consists of an executive, ...

, India at

Gwalior Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the s ...

on 18 June 2013 for her personal achievement in adventure sports and women's upliftment in the country. *

– the third highest civilian award of the

(2019) * Bharat Gaurav Award by

East Bengal Club East Bengal Club, commonly referred to as East Bengal (), is an Indian professional multi-sport club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. It is best known for its professional men's football team that competes in the Indian Super League, the top fl ...

: 2014

Books and publications

*''Everest – My Journey to the Top'', an autobiography published By National Book Trust, Delhi,

References

External links

Bachendri Pal
Biography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pal, Bachendri 1954 births Living people Indian female mountain climbers Indian mountain climbers People from Uttarkashi district Indian summiters of Mount Everest Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports Recipients of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award 20th-century Indian women 20th-century Indian people Sportswomen from Uttarakhand Mountain climbers from Uttarakhand Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in sports Recipients of the Arjuna Award Recipients of Indian Mountaineering Foundation's Gold Medal