She felt icy blasts on her face, rocks with her fingers. And she blindly trusted her team when it came to crevices and sharp edges.
Meet Mandvi Garg, India's first fully visually impaired woman who scaled a 19,566-feet peak, Mt Kanamo in Himachal Pradesh last month.
Haryana-based Mandvi, who lost her eyesight completely five years ago from genetic disorder retinitis pigmentosa, was part of the 18-member team that went to Mt Kanamo in a trek organised by Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) between August 23 and 31.
"I had no idea that I was the first (visually impaired Indian women) to reach such a height before Bachendri madam told me," Mandvi told The Telegraph from Hissar in Haryana, where she works as a manager with Oriental Bank of Commerce.
A self-confessed fan of India's first woman Everester Bachendri Pal who heads TSAF and has motivated many women to scale heights including middle-aged homemaker Premlata Agrawal who has now become an icon too, Mandvi said: "I couldn't have done it without her."
"In Hissar, people are afraid of letting me join even a gym, scared I'd injure myself. Can you imagine what people would have said had I told them I wanted to climb and even reach the Everest? I know people will say I've gone mad," she laughed.
But, she had the last laugh at Kanamo.
"I remember when we came back to the base camp near Kibber, Bachendri ma'am told me, Mandvi, you've done it. Fellow climber Saurabh Singh from Ranchi said the same. I felt indebted to Bachendri madam and TSAF support staff for guiding me to the top," Mandvi said.
It wasn't the idea of setting records that drove the banker to climb a mountain. "I felt it would be liberating to reach a height," Mandvi said when asked what prompted her to contact the TSAF and join its Kanamo programme.
How was the experience of the trek?
"To tell the truth, I used to become extremely tired. It was very cold and windy. We started at 3.30am on August 29 (from Kibber) and reached Kanamo around 12.30pm the same day. But, once I got there, I was so excited," she recalled.
She added she was indebted to her team - Bachendri and Premlata, TSAF manager Hemant Gupta, senior instructor Mohan Rawat and Tata Steel's Payo Murmu - for helping her practically "in countless ways" and motivating her when she felt a bit down. "Especially Bachendri madam," she stressed. "Great human being."
The admiration is mutual. "Mandvi is a motivation to all climbers, physically challenged or otherwise. She has proved nothing is impossible," Bachendri said.
Premlata, the oldest Indian women to conquer Everest, recalled Mandvi fell down countless times, but rose up. "When she became tired, we pushed her, saying she must go on. Her's is a big feat," she said, adding teammate and partially blind Manvendra Singh Patyal was also gutsy.
Climber Hemant added it was admirable how Mandvi braved cold winds and tough terrain. "It was some 3°C when we started the climb and was pretty windy," he recalled.
What next? "A bigger aim," said the unstoppable Mandvi. "Kanamo was a non-technical climb, which means without body harness, rope, protection hardware and avoiding steep slopes or glaciers. I'm planning a technical climb now and have already told Bachendri madam about it."
