Reena Kaushal Dharmshaktu (third from left) with the team in New Zealand; and (right) the camp there

Darjeeling, Oct. 27: Sponsorship taken care of, Himalaya woman Reena Kaushal Dharmshaktu is now getting ready for a trip to the UK for a preconditioning camp before she skis across the Antarctica, the first Indian woman to do so.

Dharmshaktu, a resident of Darjeeling till she went away to Delhi after marriage, had always rued that since she was not a cricketer, the country would not help her create the record.

Till a month back, Dharmshaktu was unsure of her participation in the Kaspersky Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition despite being selected to represent India in the eight-member team.

A software company, Kaspersky — the title sponsors of the expedition — will now take care of the entire team’s expenses.

“But I had to take personal loans (she needed around Rs 6 lakh) for a training in New Zealand last year. Getting the rest of the amount (around Rs 35 lakh), seemed a distant dream as most of the people whom I had approached for help had turned me down,” the 38-year-old mountaineer said over the phone from New Delhi.

Dharmshaktu had claimed that among those she had approached for help were Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh along with around 100 corporate houses in the country.

The Indian Mountaineering Foundation had helped Dharmshaktu when she had attended the selection camp in Norway.

The eight members of the team — many of them housewives and first timers in being exposed to sub-zero temperatures — were selected from among 800 applicants and are from Brunei, Cyprus, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Singapore, New Zealand and the UK. The expedition is being organised to mark the 60th anniversary of the Commonwealth.

“ I will be leaving India on 31st October and will again attend a pre-expedition camp in the UK till 4th November before heading to Antarctica for the expedition,” Dharmshaktu said. The expedition will start from the southern tip of Chile and it will be by no means be easy.

“There will be no guides, no air droppings of rations and fuel or set tents to stay after a hard day’s trek. We will have to carry everything and do all chores right from pitching the tent to cooking our food,” said the freelance mountain trainer, whose husband Loveraj Dharmshaktu, is an Everester.

The members have to pull sledges for 800km as well as ski with 80kg of ration and tent slung over the shoulder.

“We will have to survive on lightweight dehydrated rations and melted snow. There will be no guides to navigate our journey,” Dharmshaktu said.

The team will be led by 31-year-old Felicity Aston, who led the first British women’s group across the Greenland ice sheet.

For the Antarctica trek, the team will gather at Punta Arenas on the southern tip of Chile and split into two groups with one marching from the Ross Ice Shelf and the other from Fichner Ice Shelf to the Pole where they will meet.