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Mountains to climb, deserts to cross

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Aabhas Sharma New Delhi
Everester Bachendri Pal takes a break from her annual mountain climbing to lead an all-women's team across the desert.
 
She made a habit of adding "firsts" to her credit, but clearly isn't ready to rest on those laurels yet. In 1984, she was the first Indian woman to scale Mount Everest. She also became the first woman to lead an all-women's expedition across the Himalayan traverse.
 
Still, that was decades ago, and after shying away from the limelight these many years, Bachendri Pal is back and raring to go. Not to the mountains this time, but to the desert on another "first". Next month, she will lead an all-women's expedition on foot from the Rann of Kutch and across the Thar desert to culminate at Wagah border in Punjab.
 
"It is a unique challenge and one which I have wanted to do for a long time," says Pal, "and thanks to the Border Security Force, my wish has finally been granted." Her expedition party will include 12 women from different states "" Karnataka, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Gujarat among them.
 
On the face of it, it might appear like just a slightly long walk, but it's a difficult adventure across 2,000 km, on foot and in just five weeks, so it will also be challenging. But such tests don't deter a woman who was trapped in an avalanche while scaling the Everest and was a few feet away from death.
 
"These challenges have always made me more determined to attain the unachievable." So, at 24,000 feet when the avalanche buried the entire camp and she was badly hurt on the head, the group (all males except for her), greatly disturbed by this misfortune, decided to head back home after their miraculous escape. But she was as determined as ever and trekked ahead. And the rest, as they say, is history.
 
She counts climbing the Everest as one of her most memorable moments. But meeting her parents after that climb "" nothing tops that, she claims.
 
Still, you can't help but wonder why she's so determined to lead only an all-women's expedition. "We need to encourage women to participate in adventure sports and prove a point to the rest of the world," Pal says.
 
It is not that she is averse to the idea of having men along on such expeditions. There's a reason she's taken in upon herself to encourage more women to step into their hiking shoes.
 
"It was 1965 when the first Indian conquered the Everest," she explains, "and it took 20 more years for a woman to do so. That was something at the back of my head, and I have always thought that women should not lag behind in anything."
 
About the safari, Bachendari Pal says she knows it is an unknown territory that she is venturing into, but is confident of it being a success.
 
"These women with me are professional mountaineers and have the experience of undergoing tough tasks; besides, we have the support of BSF and Tata Steel (which is a sponsor, and also Pal's employer)."
 
The most difficult part of the desert safari will be a 350-km stretch that runs through such arid country there is no civilisation at all around. "Actually I wanted to take the expedition to Pakistan but it didn't work out," says Pal, "so I decided to cover the border areas near our neighbour."
 
Every year, on average, Pal spends six months out in the hills, taking several expeditions to the Himalayas, Karakoram and other high fastnesses. "The idea of attaining the impossible keeps me going, and I hope that more people realise the value of adventure sports."
 
Mountaineering for this woman in her fifties was never about just going to the mountains, or only climbing, but also about studying and observing them. "The mountains make one realise where one stands in the larger scheme of things. I have seen dead bodies strewn around the Everest..." she muses.
 
Any expedition is also a journey into one's self. "When you achieve an impossible task, it makes you more confident about handling other extreme situations in life that might follow."
 
So she suggests that companies insist on sending their employees out on adventure sports activities as the ultimate test of their mettle.
 
As head of the adventure sports foundation in Tata Steel, she has implemented the idea there, and influenced several corporate houses similarly. "You can't judge a person in positive situations. The true test of character comes in tough situations and it is there you can really judge a person." No wonder she's proposed the idea to
 
B-school students in institutes like XLRI Jamshedpur and XIM Bhubaneshwar.
 
What next after the safari? "I am sure there is another challenge waiting to be attained somewhere," she says.

 
 

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First Published: Jan 14 2007 | 12:00 AM IST

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