The first Indian woman and the fifth in the world to summit Everest the highest peak in the world is Bachendri Pal. She was initially trained as a teacher, but later on got her higher education in the mountains and that continued to teach her about potential, limits and humbleness. Bachendri Pal, was born in 1954 in Nakuri village, Garhwal, India. She surmounted the peak on 23rd May in the year 1984. At 1.07 p.m. IST, stood at the Sagarmatha (Nepali version of Mt. Everest and remained there with one of her co-mountaineers, for 43 minutes.

Bachendri Pal was born into a family of very reasonable or average limits means. Kishan Singh Pal, her father, was a small trader who used to carry provisions like wheat flour and rice from India to Tibet on mules and goats. After an unspecified period of time he settled in Uttarkashi, where he married. Bachendri being the middle one, the couple had five children. Bachendri, an active child who did well in her school. She distinguish herself in sports too.

At the age of 12, she was first exposed to the mountaineering. It took place during a picnic where she along with several schoolmates climbed a 13,123 feet high peak. It had already become dark, they could not climb down as. They had to spend the night at the peak without any food or cover. In her memory, the experience remained deep-rooted. It started heightening her love for adventure and the mountains. She carried on her schooling and accomplished it successfully despite many constraints. Her parents sent her to college on being swayed by the principal of her school. After completing her graduation, she become the first girl of her village to do so. She also secured the first position in a rifle shooting event, beating other boys and girls during her college days. She also finished university courses conducing to secure an MA and a Bachelor`s degree in education.

As her family was experiencing financial troubles, she wanted a job in intense despair. Withal, she was not liking the offers that were coming to her way. She was aiming to become a professional mountaineer. The family was desolated. For them and the relatives, local people, for a woman the most suitable job was teaching, not mountaineering. Once in an interview she told, "when I was unemployed, after completion of my education, and I was sitting at home, my parents and all the relatives were forcing me to get married, but once I started climbing mountains, there was no looking back and I got a very good job. I was given a separate department and they made me the head of the department, they empowered me. And I kept doing one after the next expedition and all. However she experienced this kind of constraints before her ambition." But Bachendri did not move even a very slight from her determination. She was admitted to the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM). She was declared to be the best student and was considered as "Everest material". She climbed Gangotri I (21,900 ft) and Rudugaria (19,091 ft) in the year1982, during her time at NIM. She got employment as an instructor at the National Adventure Foundation, around that time, which had set up an adventure school to train women to learn mountaineering.

India had scheduled its fourth expedition, christened "Everest `84`", in the year1984, to the Mount Everest. As one of the members of the elite group of six Indian women and eleven men, Bachendri was selected who were favored to endeavor a movement upward to the Mount Everest, Sagarmatha amongst the Nepalese. The news made her filled with a sense of blissfulness and excitement. In March 1984, the elite team was flown to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal and from there the team moved onwards. Bachendri once thought back recalling her first glimpse of the Mount Everest: "We the hill people have always worshipped the mountains … my overpowering emotion at this awe-inspiring spectacle was, therefore, devotional."

In May in the year 1984, the team started out its movement in. She along with her team mates have faced many danger on their journey to the peak of Everest. A serac on the Lhotse glacier, above the Camp III has slid down, and fallen on the camp raking havoc at the camp.

To ascent the summit of the Mount Everest some other climbers joined the team. In this group, Bachendri was the only woman. They carried on the ascent climbing "vertical sheets of frozen ice", at the speed of about 100 km per hour cold winds sometimes blowing out, temperatures touching below up to minus 30 to 40 degrees Celsius. Bachendri reached the summit of Mount Everest, on 23rd May 1984, and at 1:07 PM IST, she was standing at the peak (29,084 ft) along with one other climber. The peak was small to conciliate two persons. All around the peak, there was a vertical drop of thousands of feet. So they first, by anchoring themselves by digging their ice axes into the snow made themselves secured. After that Bachendri sat on her knees, touched the meridian with her head in the Hindu gesture of thanksgiving to the almighty. She took an image of goddess Durga and a copy of Hanuman Chalisha (the Book of Forty Verses of Hanuman) and located them in the snow. For about 43 minutes, She stayed on the summit, and took some photographs too. Thus she became the first Indian woman to scale the Mount Everest, and the fifth women in the world.

To her mountain has taught her a lot "To discover myself, what I am. While climbing a mountain, I come to know about myself, what scares me, and how I deal with my confidence and my determination. I consider nature is not only a great teacher, but as a great purifier… it simplifies the problems, and purifies our paths." When she was asked about her summation of Everest she replied, "I was not sure, but I was confident about my physical condition and mentally I was very strong, but I had no idea how far I had to go.

Today she still dreams `to lead on all-women expedition, and to give other women also that opportunity" where she is now today.