Sheetal Sangeeta Ekka outside Tata Steel Adventure Foundation office in Jamshedpur on Saturday. (Bhola Prasad)

Jamshedpur, Oct. 11: She wanted to go vroom vroom on her gleaming 150cc Bajaj Pulsar on a high-altitude road, but ended up huffing and puffing with an all-women’s expedition team at Kharta Valley, Tibet.

Meet Sheetal Sangeeta Ekka, a 24-year-old passionate biker who has now found a new love after the Tibet trek — mountains!

A junior engineer at Tata Steel’s coke plant, Sheetal was the youngest member of the eight-member expedition team that included Everesters Bachendri Pal and Premlata Agarwal. The young tribal girl, who returned to the city last night, spoke about her tryst with the tough valley known for its spectacular mountains, high glacial lakes and alpine flowers.

“I had approached Bachendri Pal (Tata Steel’s adventure programmes chief) for supporting me in undertaking a solo bike trip to Khardung La, the world’s highest motorable pass in Ladakh. She appeared sceptical, as I had no experience in travelling to high altitude. Instead, she advised me to take a trip to Dalma hills,” said Sheetal, a diploma holder in metallurgy from Government Polytechnic in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

But the Jamshedpur resident was in for disappointment when she came last in climbing the Dalma hills with a team from Tata Steel Adventure Foundation about four months back. “I was disheartened and thought adventure was not my cup of tea. I was surprised when Bachendri madam called me to ask if I was interested to be part of an all-women expedition. I latched on to the offer,” a proud Sheetal told The Telegraph.

Eager to share her experience, she said the trip was hard, especially because the Tibetian guides always belittled their efforts.

“The guides took us for granted and always spoke to us in a discouraging tone. But we went ahead with the expedition. I developed chest pain while acclimatising at Nyalam (12,300ft) on the Nepal-Tibet border. I have never been to such a high altitude. It was cold and windy throughout the trip,” Sheetal recalled.

Happy after successfully completing the trek, the rookie climber is now dreaming big.

“I have really developed a knack for climbing. I want to first complete a basic course from the Himalayan Institute of Mountaineering (Darjeeling) and later take part in TSAF’s outdoor and local activities,” she smiled.

On her passion for bikes, Sangeeta said she used to ride her late father’s (Nicotim Ekka) bike while he was posted as a forest ranger at Jashpur in Chhattisgarh.

“I used to ride to forest areas and did regular to and fro trips to Ranchi at a speed of 100kmph-120kmph. I love speed,” Sheetal confessed.

Apart Sheetal, Pal and Agarwal, the other women were Jyoti Sharma and Tanu Verma (both from New Delhi), Anita Kumari (Surat, Gujarat), Madhvi Sharma (Dehradun) and Chetna Sahu (Calcutta).