Welcome to our 21th #womanoftheweek! Today, we will be discussing Bachendri Pal, a Indian Mountaineer! Enjoy!
Bachendri Pal brings pride to India for being a record holder as the first Indian woman to climb Mt. Everest (8848.86 m), the tallest mountain in the world. Besides being a mountaineer, Pal engaged in humanitarian work for Himalayan villages affected by floods and is also a published author. Her tenacious ambition to literally rise and accomplish what few have done, leads her to serve as a courageous model for not only everyone, but especially South Asian girls as our “Woman of the Week.”
Pal was born on May 24th,1954 in North India’s Uttarkashi district, which borders Tibet and Nepal. Her birth was coincidentally five days before the first people, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, climbed Mount Everest. As for her childhood, Pal had four siblings and had proved to be a gifted student on the track to become a teacher. However, she expressed an interest in mountaineering at a young age, scaling a 13,123 foot(3,999.9 meter) mountain with friends when she was twelve. Pal went on to higher education, earning her bachelor’s degree and master’s at D.A.V. Post Graduate College, Dehradun. Despite this and her family’s opposition to becoming a mountaineer, Pal did so, by going on to study at Nehru Institute of Mountaineer(Bachendri Pal).
In her time at Nehru Institute, Pal became the first woman to climb Mt. Gangotri and Mt. Rudragaria in 1982, both amounting to over 19,000 ft. Her accomplishments were noticed and she was selected to become a part of India’s mixed gender team to go on an expedition to the top of Mt. Everest in the Himalayas. Bachendri was one of six women and eleven men chosen for Everest84, referring to the year 1984. The expedition ascended in early May 1984 and met adversity in the form of avalanches, in which Pal described “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" (Everest: My Journey to the Top by Bachendri Pal). Some members abandoned the journey while others remained. By May 23, 1984, a day before her birthday and six days before the 31st anniversary, the remainder of the team had reached the summit and Pal was the only woman standing (Bachendri Pal | Indian mountaineer). After this monumental feat, Pal remained active in climbing, encountering Everest again, except as the leader for a Nepalese-Indian female expedition. Pal was a member of the first Indian Women Trans-Himalayan Expedition from the eastern end to the west in 225 day; it was not only the first success of that expedition by women, but by any country. Using her experience in mountaineering, after the 2013 floods in Northern India, Pal and other climbers carried aid and rescue to remote villages(Bachendri Pal).
Bachendri Pal paved the way as an achiever of many “firsts” as a climber and as a woman, specifically her Mount Everest expeditions, which she captured in her autobiography “Everest: My Journey to the Top.” As for awards, she received the fourth(1984) and third(2019) highest civilian award in India, a gold medal by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation and Uttar Pradesh’s Department of education, a spot in the Guiness Book of World Records, and much more(Bachendri Pal). Bachendri Pal championed female upliftment, physically, socially, and mentally as a pioneer for ambitious mountaineers who came after. Pal climbed more than an 8848.86 meter mountain, but climbed over gender ideals. Bachendri Pal showed others to not undermine female climbers despite how climbing was a male dominated activity and seen as dangerous, therefore allowing women to apply these ideals from any field and walk of life.
This is a Woman of the Week article, a weekly deep dive into an amazing women of color. For more incredible stories like this one, check out our article on Yuri Kochiyama and Jofesa Madamba Llanes Escoda! Also, if you’re interested in another type of article, read our Around the World article on 5 Korean Actresses. Make sure to follow us at @likeagirlglobal on Instagram for more updates and original content!
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