Five Mountaineers Who Made Expeditions Count In 2021

2021 is a special years for women making a feat in mountaineering not only because of their achievements, but also the fact that Indian Mountaineering Federation(IMF) got a woman president for the first time in the history since its conception- Harshwanti Bisht. The 62 year mountaineer who was trained from National Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi earned the prestigious Arjuna Award for scaling Nanda Devi Peak in 1981.

Here, we have a list of the female mountaineers from India who made a mark for themselves and the country in 2021.

5 Female Mountaineers Who Made Mark In 2021-

Priyanka Mohite-

The 28 year girl from Satara in Maharashtra made a record this year by climbing Mt. Annapurna(26545 feet) in Nepal. She became the first Indian women to have achieved this feat. Mt. Annapurna is the tenth highest mountain of the world located in Himalayan massif. She started by climbing the peaks in Shyadari range of Maharashtra in 2012 as teenager. She has many climbs to her credit like Mt. Lhotse, Mt. Makalu, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Bandarpuch glacier and Mt Everest to top it all.

Priyanka Mohite

Priyanka works as Research Associate at Syngene International Ltd, a subsidiary of Biocon(Indian biopharmaceutical company). Her achievement of climbing Mt. Annapurna earlier this year was shared by founder and chairperson of Biocon Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.

"Now-a-days women climb and we slay at it too. In small cities people are not aware about mountaineering and on top of that they lack family support" : Interview of Priyanka Mohite with SheThePeople

Tashi Yangjom-

Tashi Yangjom became first woman climber from India to climb Mount Everest in 2021. Tashi is a resident of West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. She is an instructor at National Institure of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (NIMAS) in Dirang of Arunachal Pradesh and the ninth climber from the institute to have achieved the feat of climbing world’s highest Mount Everest. She was also trained at NIMAS for her mountaineering courses.

Tashi Yangjom/ Image: ANI

The 27 year, Yangjom, received several congratulatory messages from ministers and governor of the state for making them proud. Tashi belongs to herder tribe called Brokpa, and credits her childhood treks to the hills nearby and her instructors at NIMAS for helping her achieve the feat. Read here.

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Baljeet Kaur and Gunbala Sharma-

Baljeet Kaur from Solan, Himachal Pradesh and Gunbala Sharma from Rajasthan are part of 12 member team that will be scaling Mt. Nuptse, Mt. Lhotse, Mt. Pumoriand Mt. Everest. Both of them became first Indian women to summit Mt. Pumori(23494 feet) in Nepal in May, 2021. It is considered as one of the most difficult peaks in Everest Massif, meanwhile maintaining strict adherence to COVID protocols laid by the country.

The team they were part of will also assist Nepalese government to clean wastes in Upper Khumbu Glacier in region of Mt. Everest. Baljeet Kaur also resolves to climb Mt. Everest in 2022 which she could not complete six years back and was left ahead by 300 meters due to some technical reasons.

Arunima Sinha-

The Indian climber holds the record of being the first woman amputee in the world to have climbed the Mount Everest in 2013. In 2021, she was offered a doctorate for her phenomenal achievement by University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. She was honored for her inspirational feat at the University. Arunima lost her leg when she was thrown from a running train trying to resist robbery.

Arunima Sinha
Picture By: The Curious Can.com

However, she later on trained with Bachendri Pal (first woman from India to climb Everest) and became first woman amputee to scale Everest. Besides Everest, she has climbed Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mt Elbrus in Europe, Aconcagua in Argentina, Kosciuszko in Australia, Puncak Jaya in Indonesia and Mt Vinson in Antarctica. In 2015, she was awarded with Padma Shri by Governement of India.