Solan mountaineer scales Mt Manaslu

Ambika Sharma

Solan, October 7

Solan resident Baljeet Kaur has became the first Indian women to scale the summit of 8,163 metre high Mount Manaslu in Nepal without oxygen. She scaled the summit on September 30 at 7:40 AM. At the age of 26 years, she is also the youngest woman to accomplish this feat. She is a resident of Panjrol village in Solan.

Mount Manaslu is the eighth highest peak in the world. She has also achieved the feat of being the first Indian to climb seven of the 8,000 metre and above high peaks in the world and the fastest to climb six of these in 5 months and 2 days.

Elaborating on her experience Baljeet Kaur said, “Inclement weather conditions, especially rain at the base camp and heavy snowfall at higher camps, posed several challenges. Avalanches aggravated the hardships. Many sherpas and some climbers even lost their lives.”

Narrating her experience, Kaur said, “I was stuck in one of the avalanches between Camps 3 and 4. After multiple attempts, I and my Sherpa, Mingma Dai, successfully scaled the summit on September 30.”

She dedicated her success to the young and upcoming women mountaineers of the country. “I want to be their inspiration and motivation so that they take mountaineering as a sport.”

Baljeet Kaur is also the first Indian woman mountaineer to scale the 7,161 metre high Pumori peak and 8,167 meters high Mount Dhaulagiri.

She also has the distinction of scaling three mountain peaks in seven days. These include Mount Everest (8,848.86 m), the highest mountain on the planet, Mount Lhotse (8,517 m), the fourth highest mountain on the planet, and Mt Makalu (8,485 m).