Nahida Manzoor Becomes First Kashmiri Woman To Conquer Mt Everest

At the age of 23 years, Nahida Manzoor has been able to overcome stereotypes and has successfully been able to scale the highest peak in the world, Mount Everest.

“The Fourth summit of the day is Ms Nahida Manzoor along with her Sherpa Guide Mr Nima Kancha. Nahida hails from the state of Jammu & Kashmir. The lady has been passionate about the snow peaks and took to the mountains at a very young age.” This was from a Facebook post by Transcend Adventures. Transcend Adventures the tour agency had planned this adventure trip.

On the 21 April, she had posted her photo from the base camp of Mount Everest. Her Facebook page describes her as an “Alpinist, mountaineer, climber and a shooter” who also likes table tennis, badminton, volleyball and riding.”

The tour agency manager, Vidur Vij had said, “She scaled the summit in the morning. She is descending now and it will take her two days to climb down.”

Nahida Manzoor is a resident of Zewan in Srinagar. She had started climbing mountains from the tender age of 10 years. Later on, mountaineering became her passion. In the year 2017, she had taken several courses on mountaineering professionally. She pursued courses in skiing, mountaineering, and rock climbing as well. She pursued the courses from Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and the Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering.

Before scaling the highest peak in the world, Manzoor has previously scaled Mount Deo Tibba, Manali (6001 metres) and Friendship Peak of Himachal Pradesh (5,289 metres), besides Srinagar’s highest peak Mount Mahadev and Mount Tatakooti in Pir Panjal.

Before scaling the highest peak in the world, Manzoor has previously scaled Mount Deo Tibba, Manali (6001 metres) and Friendship Peak of Himachal Pradesh (5,289 metres), besides Srinagar’s highest peak Mount Mahadev and Mount Tatakooti in Pir Panjal.

Coming from a middle class family, struggling to make ends meet, she did not have Rs 30 lakhs to spend for the adventure. Therefore, she started a crowd-funding campaign on social media, so that she would be able to fulfil her childhood dream.

She had written: “At the age of 23, for someone like me who is struggling to make ends meet, it is an impossible task to spend Rs 30 lakhs. But I believe that something like money shouldn’t stop you from dreaming big and this is where I need your support.”

This crowd-funding campaign had attracted several people, including the Srinagar deputy commissioner Shahid Choudhary. He said, “It is a major achievement for the entire valley and she has shown the way for others. We are proud of her.”

“Kashmiris too have dreams & aspirations like everyone else. Somewhere between stereotyping & demonising them, human stories are lost. All of twenty three, Nahida Manzoor is the first Kashmiri woman to scale Mt Everest. More power to her & the youth of J&K.”

Nahida Manzoor is an Arts student and is in her final year. Before she left she had written that she wanted to attempt to reach the peak by the lesser travelled route, which was the southern path. The Mount Everest summit is close to around 8,848-metre (29,029 feet) high.

Nahida Manzoor has achieved a remarkable feat and we congratulate her.

Pic credit: Hindustan Times

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Kavya Shah is an intern at SheThePeople.Tv