Sixteen-year-old Shivangi Pathak has become the youngest Indian woman to scale the Mt Everest from the Nepal side. The teenager born in Hisar, Haryana, achieved the feat on Thursday, reports from Kathmandu said.
She climbed the Mt Everest to spread the message that women could overcome any obstacle to achieve their goals. Shivangi Pathak drew inspiration from Arunima Sinha, the first amputee to climb the Mt Everest.
A report in the Himalayan Times quoted a representative of Seven Summit Treks, who organized the expedition, as saying that Shivangi scaled the mountain along with climbing guides Dawa Sherpa, Nima Norbu Sherpa and Furba Dorchi Sherpa. The report said that another Indian, Prajit Pardesi, also scaled Mt Everest the same day.
The youngest Indian woman to scale the peak, considering all sides of approach, continues to remain Poorna Malavath. She summited the Everest from the Tibet side in 2014, when she was barely 13.
Shivangi Pathak had reached Lukla in Nepal, the gateway to the highest peak in the world, after receiving a permit from the country’s Department of Tourism in April.
A report in The Himalayan Times had then quoted her as saying that she was here to fulfill her “childhood dream” and that she wanted to conquer every mountain in the world.
The 8,048 m (29,029 ft) Mt Everest was scaled for the first time in 1953, by Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.
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Shivangi’s achievement came barely a day after the first Indian father-daughter duo scaled Mt Everest. Gurugram-based Ajit Bajaj and his 20-year-old daughter Deeya Bajaj scaled the peak in quick succession early on Wednesday morning.
A Padma Shri awardee, Ajit Bajaj had earlier become the first Indian to ski to the North Pole and the South Pole within a year in 2006-2007.
Deeya, who has trained at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, had completed the 20-day Trans Greenland Trekking Expedition when she was only 17 years old. She had earlier scaled the highest peak in Europe, Mt Elbrus.
