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Bachendri Pal: The First Indian Woman to Stand on Everest

An avalanche buried her team’s camp at 24,000 feet. Six days later, Bachendri Pal stood on top of the world.

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Bachendri Pal was born on 24 May 1954, in Nakuri, Uttarkashi district, in present-day Uttarakhand. She was one of seven children.
She trained at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) in 1982. That year, she became the first woman to summit both Gangotri I and Rudugaira.
In 1984, she was selected for Everest ’84, India’s fourth Everest expedition. The team had 6 women and 11 men.
On the night of 15-16 May 1984, an avalanche struck the team’s Camp III, at 24,000 feet. More than half the team turned back, injured or exhausted.
Pal pressed on. She reached Everest’s summit on 23 May 1984, at 1:07pm, a day before her 30th birthday.
She became the first Indian woman, and the fifth woman in the world, to summit Mount Everest.

In 1984 itself, she received the Indian Mountaineering Foundation’s gold medal for excellence. The same year, she received the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award.
In 1986, she received the Arjuna Award, India’s second-highest sporting honour.
In 1993, she led the Indo-Nepalese Women’s Mount Everest Expedition. Eighteen climbers reached the summit, including 7 women.
In 1994, she led the Great Indian Women’s Rafting Voyage. Eighteen women, in three rafts, covered 2,155 km down the Ganga, from Haridwar to Calcutta, in 39 days.
In 1997, she led the First Indian Women’s Trans-Himalayan Expedition. Eight women covered over 4,500 km, from Arunachal Pradesh to the Siachen Glacier, crossing more than 40 mountain passes in 225 days.
She later served as Chief of Adventure Programmes at the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation, training generations of younger climbers.

In 2019, 35 years after her Everest climb, she received the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award.
Her path ran against her family’s expectations. She completed an MA in Sanskrit and trained as a schoolteacher, but chose mountaineering instead, despite opposition from relatives.
Nearly every major expedition she led after 1984 put other women in charge. The 1993 Everest team, the 1994 rafting voyage, and the 1997 trans-Himalayan trek all followed the same pattern. Her own “first” became something she deliberately handed on to others, not just a personal milestone.