Santosh Yadav (born 10 October 1967) is an Indian mountaineer. She is the first woman in the world to climb

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow ...

twice and the first woman to successfully climb Mount Everest from

Kangshung Face The Kangshung Face (Chinese: 康雄壁) or East Face is the eastern-facing side of Mount Everest, one of the Tibetan sides of the mountain. It is 3,350 metres (11,000 ft) from its base on the Kangshung Glacier to the summit.''Mount Everest'', ...

. She climbed the peak first in May 1992 and then again in May 1993 with an Indo-Nepalese Team. During her Everest mission in 1992, she saved the life of a climber,

Mohan Singh Mohan Singh (4 March 1945 – 22 September 2013) was an Indian politician from the Samajwadi Party. He was elected three times to the Lok Sabha from Deoria in Uttar Pradesh. He was the General Secretary of the Samajwadi Party. He died on 22 ...

, by sharing oxygen with him. She also tried to help a mountaineer who lay dying at the South Col but was unsuccessful in saving him.

Early life and education

She was born in Joniyawas village in Rewari district of

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ...

state,

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

as the sixth child in a family of five boys. She earlier attended a local village school and then moved to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders wi ...

and got enrolled in a school there. She attended

Maharani College Maharani College is a girls college in the city of Jaipur, in the state of Rajasthan. The college was established in 1944 and is one of six constituent colleges of University of Rajasthan. It was established on the name of Maharani Gayatri Devi ...

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known as ...

, where she was able to see mountaineers climbing

Aravalli Range The Aravalli Range (also spelled ''Aravali'') is a mountain range in Northern- Western India, running approximately in a south-west direction, starting near Delhi, passing through southern Haryana, Rajasthan, and ending in Ahmedabad Gujar ...

from her room. She was inspired by this to join Uttarkashi's

Nehru Institute of Mountaineering The Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM India) in Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand is an institute that was established on November 14, 1965. The institute was formed to honor the great desire of President Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister o ...

while successfully continuing her studies for the

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the India ...

(IAS) exams in a hostel provided by the Amity University at Noida.

Career

In 1992, Yadav scaled

, when she was barely 25, becoming the youngest woman in the world to achieve this feat, a record which was broken by 13-year-old Purna, in 2013. Within twelve months, she became a member of an Indo-Nepalese Women's expedition and scaled Everest the second time, thus setting the record as the first woman to have scaled Everest twice. She also remained as an officer in the

Indo-Tibetan Border Police The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) is a border patrol organization of India deployed along its borders with Tibet Autonomous Region. It is one of the seven Central Armed Police Forces, established in 1962 in the aftermath of the Sino-Indi ...

. She was a part of the nine-nation international climbing camp-cum-expedition to

Nun Kun Nun Kun is a mountain massif of the greater Himalayan range, located on the border of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in northern India. It consists of two main peaks: Nun () and Kun (),Figures for Kun's elevation vary between 7,035 m and 7,086 m ...

in 1989. Also, her being a fervent environmentalist, she collected 500 kgs of dumped wastes from the Himalayas. Santosh Yadav was awarded the National Adventure Award 1994 and

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is confe ...

in 2000.

Expeditions

*In 1999, Santosh Yadav led an Indian mountaineering expedition to

, Everest. *In 2001, she led a mountaineering team to East Face, Mount Everest.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yadav, Santosh 1967 births Living people Indian female mountain climbers Indian mountain climbers Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports Recipients of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award People from Rewari Sportswomen from Haryana Indian summiters of Mount Everest University of Rajasthan alumni 20th-century Indian women 20th-century Indian people Mountain climbers from Haryana

Early life and education

Career

Expeditions

See also

References