New heights: Premlata Agarwal

Jamshedpur, April 15: As a mellowed sun kissed snowy peaks farewell last evening, a homemaker stood tall at 18,000ft and romanced the Everest.

Premlata Agarwal, the 45-year-old mom and mountaineer from the steel city, has reached the Everest base camp, a step closer to her ambitious mission of conquering the 29,029ft epitome of indomitable power and spirit.

India’s legendary mountain maiden and chief of Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) Bachendri Pal said sub-zero temperatures were teasing the base camp, but the climber was doing good.

“Premlata reached the base camp at 18,000ft yesterday. It is snowing heavily there, but all is well,” Bachendri, the first Indian woman to have scaled the Everest in 1984, said after speaking to her over satellite phone.

Premlata, the gutsy mother of two daughters, began her acclimatisation training for the Everest on April 10 by conquering the 20,300ft Island Peak in Nepal a second time.

Not a novice, she has been part of several TSAF sponsored trips, including Island Peak in 2004, Karakoram Pass (18,300ft) and Mount Stok Kangri (20,150ft) in 2006, and the inaugural Indian women’s Thar Desert Expedition in 2007. Most recently, she scaled Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania — the highest volcanic mountain in the world — in 2008.

Bachendri said Premlata was in high spirits. “She is eating well and drinking lots of fluids to survive at that altitude, where the atmospheric pressure is half of that at sea level,” Bachendri said.

A resident of the city’s Jugsalai locality, Premlata is part of the international Everest expedition organised by the Asian Trekking Agency of Kathmandu.

A formal puja will be performed on April 17 at the Everest base camp after which the actual climb will commence. In all, four camps will be set up at different heights before the attempt for the peak is made from the fourth camp on the south Col (26,000 ft).