Piyali becomes first Indian woman to climb Mt Everest sans supplemental O2
The mountaineer from Chandannagar had to mortgage her house to overcome financial constraints
KOLKATA: Mountaineer Piyali Basak from Chandannagar in Hooghly district of Bengal scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to have climbed Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen. The news of her scaling the highest mountain peak of the world reached her family on Sunday morning.
Her rare feat came in less than seven months after she made history by scaling the dangerous peak Dhaulagiri (8167 m) without supplemental oxygen, becoming the first Indian woman to do so on October 1, 2021.
Piyali has been preparing for her expedition soon after she returned from Dhaulagiri. However, financial constraints emerged as a major impediment in her passion and determination. She managed to collect 18 lakh through her savings and mortgaging her house.
However, the total cost for her expedition was Rs 35 lakh and the Nepal government was adamant not to allow the expedition if Piyali failed to cough up the full amount. Piyali posted an appeal in her Facebook page urging common people for assistance. Another Rs 5 lakh was raised through that. Pioneer Adventure— a government registered company in Himalayas Nepal under whose banner Piyali embarked on the expedition arranged for the rest of the amount so that Piyali could fulfil her dreams.
She had reached the base camp on May 1, and then tried to reconcile with the chilling weather conditions.
On May 5, she reached the second camp and then again returned to base camp. Following this she started her ascent accompanied by Dawa Sherpa.
She will return to camp 4 and will rest there.
Then she would start her expedition for Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world without supplemental oxygen.
Congratulating Piyali for her feat, mountaineer Satyarup Sidhanta said that many mountaineers like Piyali face financial trouble for their expedition. “There should be some friendly policy for encouraging this sport on the part of the state and the Centre. Corporate sponsorship may also be encouraged and then many mountaineers from the state will make us proud like Piyali,” Sidhanta said.
He happens to be the youngest mountaineer in the world and the first from India to climb both the Seven Summits as well as Seven Volcanic Summits.
Piyali who is a teacher of Kanailal Primary School has scaled a number of peaks earlier which includes — Mt Tinchenkang (6010m), a peak in Sikkim Himalaya, Manaslu also known as Kutang that happens to be the eighth highest mountain in the world at 8,163 metres.
She had also tried the Mt Everest expedition in 2019 but inclement weather conditions forced her to return with still 400 m to climb.