No mountain high enough for this mother of two

Agarwal was part of a six-person international expedition,which also included climber Arjun Vajpayee who reached Mt Lhotse on the same day. She is an old hand at conquering the peaks having been part of several expeditions in the past including the over 20,000 ft climb to Island Peak in Nepal in 2004. She also went to the Karakoram Pass and the summit of Mount Stok Kangri at a height of 20,150ft in 2006,and accompanied Bachendri Pal on the inaugural Indian women’s Thar Desert Expedition,four years ago. And in 2008 she conquered Mt Killimanjaro in Tanzania.

“I guess every mountaineer at some point in their life,has an ambition of conquering Mt Everest. For me,I would never have conceived of this idea if Bachendri Pal would not have urged me to,” adds Agarwal,who started her ascent to the summit on May 16 and reached it on May 20.

Agarwal received training in mountain climbing in 2001 after she enrolled at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering,Uttarkashi,earning the best trainee award. “I had to wait for my daughters to grow up and settle down before I could focus on my mountaineering aspirations. But I got a lot of encouragement from my children and in-laws for this expedition,” remarks Agarwal,whose eldest daughter,26,recently got married and the second one,24,is pursuing an MBA degree.

But when she is reminded that she is the oldest woman climber,Agarwal smiles. “I don’t feel all that old really. In fact,I didn’t find the climb all that challenging. There were other younger climbers who could not make it beyond Camp 2 (22,000 ft) without an oxygen mask. I would only need it from Camp 3 (24,500 ft) onwards,” she says,describing instances of facing bone chilling cold which numbed the body extremities. For now,Agarwal does not have any ambitions of climbing further. “I will go home now to my husband and daughter.”