Youngest woman to scale Kanchenjunga recalls ‘surreal’ trek
Born in a small village of Pithoragarh, she fell in love with the mountains at an early age. Now 22, Sheetal Raj has become the youngest woman to scale Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world.
“When our Sherpa told me we have reached the top, my body was suddenly renewed with energy. It was like a live wire coursing through me. I got extremely overwhelmed, broke down and hugged the Sherpa. It was unbelievable,” Raj said, describing her experience of being on top of the 8,586-metre (28,169 feet) high summit on May 21.
Raj, daughter of a taxi driver father and homemaker mother, was in love with the mountains since childhood. “I used to accompany my mother when she used to go into the jungles of mountains looking for wood. The view from there and the silence made me feel very peaceful,” she said.
She got her first opportunity to be a part of a climbing expedition in 2014. “I was in the NCC unit in my college. They informed us about this expedition and I really wanted to go. I told my parents it was a trip, but they still refused.”
After much difficulty, Raj got her parents on board. She completed a mountaineering course from Darjeeling’s Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in 2015.
Raj came back to learn she had not been selected for the expedition to Mount Everest. “The news shook me completely. I couldn’t believe it. It had a deep impact on my mental condition. I dropped out of college as I didn’t feel like doing anything. It almost took me a year to come out of depression.”
In the meantime, Raj applied for a membership at Indian Mountaineering Foundation, the apex national body for organising and mountaineering expeditions. “Last year, we planned an expedition to Satopanth Glacier for the ONGC. Raj was one of the five members from the IMF who went on the expedition,” said Col (retd) HS Chauhan, IMF president.
The Kanchenjunga expedition was flagged off in April. “It takes place in Nepal. Once we reached Hapur Khola, we started our trek to the base camp. It took us 15 days to finish,” Raj said.
She and her team made the first attempt to scale the summit on May 12. “We were at camp 3 when we suddenly heard a loud explosion and the ground beneath our feet started trembling. An avalanche had hit.”
Raj and her team retreated to the base camp. “The leader was suggesting we drop the idea of scaling the summit. I was crushed. Coming so close, I did not want to lose the opportunity.”
The team, however, started their ascent on May 18 and reached camp 4 on May 20. From there, they began their ascent to the summit. “We reached the top at 3.30am on May 21. I felt like I was home, but it was too dark to see anything. When the sun finally rose, it was surreal. On one side, we could see India, on the other, it was Nepal and in front of us was the China border. The experience was surreal.”