India's first woman to ace Mount Everest in 1984, Bachendri Pal, now 63, and long-time head of Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF), sees her worthy successor in Hemant Gupta, 27, who annexed the same peak on May 27 this year.
At a programme at JRD Tata Sports Complex on Monday to felicitate Man of Steel Hemant Gupta, recent Everester and an IIT-Bombay graduate who had chosen mountains over metallurgy, Padma Shri Bachendri praised the mental toughness of the young techie and his ability to "enjoy hardship", which the veteran climber dubbed as the attributes of any successful adventurer.
"I have been closely watching the progress of Hemant Gupta ever since he joined the TSAF in 2013. Though initially he was not physically strong, he always had mental strength and a strong resolve. He has built his endurance through his will power and has now started enjoying hardships (of climbing). He is very focussed. He has all the attributes not only of a good climber but of the head of the foundation (TSAF) and I am ready to hand him the mantle," Bachendri, who is the director of TSAF on an extension till 2019, said.
Hemant, who after from his unforgettable "15-minute" stop on the Everest in the morning of May 27, had gone home to Kota in Rajasthan after coming back to India, for some quality time with his family. He returned on Sunday to Jamshedpur, where he works as a manager at TSAF since September 2013.
Hemant, who worked at Tata Steel's Jamshedpur and Kalinganagar units before joining TSAF, became the seventh climber from Jharkhand to wrest the Everest, joining the likes of Bachendri (May 23, 1984), Premlata Agarwal (May 20, 2011), Rajender Singh Pal, Binita Soren and Meghlal Mahto (May 26, 2012), and Susen Mahto (May 19, 2013).
Before the Everest, he had scaled the 20,305-feet Island Peak in Nepal, the 21,725-feet Chamser Kangri in Ladakh, and the 22,837-feet Mount Aconcagua, South America's highest mountain and the world's second highest after Everest.
Hemant thanked Tata Steel for supporting this expedition, which he attempted with Tata Steel employee Payo Murmu, 51, who could not make it due to inclement weather.
He also thanked Bachendri for managing to persuade his mother Savita to allow him another attempt after the failed bid in 2015 due to the Nepal earthquake. "After the earthquake in 2015 it was very difficult to convince my family to allow me to go. It was Bachendri ma'am's talk with my mother that finally did the trick."
Hemant also revealed his dream of annexing the Seven Summits, which is a mountaineering challenge. "I have already annexed two of them (Aconcagua and Everest) and am eager to climb the rest of the five. But, I cannot commit on the timeline," he said.
Though she could not climb the peak, Payo came for warm praise from Bachendri. "She (Payo) had prepared well at acclimatisation camps but fatigue and exhaustion got the better of her and she was advised by sherpas against trying to climb the peak. It would have been suicidal had she tried. It happens during expeditions. But, we are happy that at this age she climbed till Camp 4 (26,085ft)," said Pal.
Payo said sherpas had warned her against risking further ascent and cited the example of a South African woman climber with frostbite who had to be rescued.
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