In October 1964, 56 years ago, Bengaluru's Usha Ramaiah - Karnataka's first female mountaineer conquered the peak of the Himalayas. She was inspired by Tenzing Norgay who reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953. He was the first and one of many males to accomplish the feat.
Ramaiah, who climbed the 22,490 ft excessive Mrigthuni mountains in the Himalayan ranges as a part of the first Indian all-woman Himalayan expedition workforce. She was only 22 at the time. It was a time when women did not dare take up such extreme expeditions. “Those were days when women mountaineers from India were unheard of,” laughs Ramaiah who is now 79 years old, a report by Times of India quoted her saying.
The athlete from the 1962 science batch of Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru, Ramaiah then lived in Basavanagudi and had read the headlines of detailed coverage of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s historic Everest climb. The magazine changed the life of a young girl from Karnataka and Hillary and Norgay became an inspiration over the years, says the mountaineer.
It was a year before her extravaganza, she was chosen for a rock-climbing course in Pipariya, Madhya Pradesh as a part of the woman scouts and the lead coach was none other than Norgay himself. She excelled within the course and, with sheer grit and determination, she was picked for superior climbing at Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling, again to be trained under his guidance.
Usha was discouraged by many who told her that climbing was not for girls, but Ramaiah says her parents always supported her dream.
The Bengalurean made a six-day solo journey from Chennai to Kolkata en route to the Mrigthuni base camp by way of trains, boats and buses to reach Darjeeling to be a part of the expedition in 1964. The said first Indian all-woman Himalayan expedition included Ramaiah and other mountaineers Rani from Hyderabad and Durga from Shillong. The expedition was led by veteran English mountaineer Joyce Dunsheath. “There was no specialised climbing gear for women those days; we had to use men’s jackets and boots. We borrowed equipment from Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and began our journey on September 20,1964 from Darjeeling,” she reminisces.
Ramaiah and her team had spent thirteen days with no oxygen help or superior navigation gear. They reached the Mrigthuni peak on October 12, 1964. She described the "memorable" day as "I remember feeling the cold wind on my cheeks as I stood on the summit and looked down.”
Her achievement made it to faculty textbooks in Karnataka and the postal division issued a particular cowl in commemoration. After that glorious moment on the mountain, she lost touch with the ladies who accompanied her but she says she is on the quest to locate them now. Ramaiah later went on to found a mountaineering club in Karnataka to encourage, help, guide and create awareness among youth to take up rock climbing and mountaineering. Since then, her achievement has inspired many to trek her path.
Feature Image Credit: TOI
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