JAMSHEDPUR: On May 13 this year, 38-year-old Asmita Dorjee, a mountaineer from the city, became the first Indian woman to reach the South Summit (8745m) of Mount Everest without using supplementary oxygen.
Dorjee attempted to scale Mount Everest but suffered temporary loss of vision due to lack of oxygen at the South Summit. Her fellow sherpas then decided to head back and helped her reach the base camp (8000m).
Talking to the media here on Tuesday, Dorjee said, “After returning to the base camp, I was hoping for another attempt but the doctors advised against it, saying I could develop High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE) again.”
She left the base camp on May 18 and reached Kathmandu on May 22.
On climbing without oxygen, she said, “I have trained hard and my experience of scaling South Summit without using supplementary oxygen has motivated me to make another attempt at Mt Everest.”
She further said, “But I have to train first by scale mounts with heights within the range of 7000m to 8000 acclimatise with the weather condition of high altitudes and ensure my body’s endurance level enhances before I made the ultimate attempt at Mt Everest.”
Dorjee is working as a professional instructor at the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) and said she will not rest till she accomplices her goal.
Lauding the grit of Dorjee, Tata Steel’s vice-president (corporate communications) Chanakya Chaudhary said, “It is just a matter of time before she makes history by scaling Mt Everest without supplementary oxygen.”
Earlier, Chaudhary had flagged off Dorjee’s expedition here on March 29.
He added, “Her attempt in itself is an example of the ultimate human endurance and the indomitable spirit.”
After Chaudhary flagged off Dorjee’s expedition, she reached the Everest base camp on April 14 after a trek of eight days and started for the summit on May 9.
A sherpa by origin, Dorjee was born in Thesu, a tiny village in the Mt Everest region, and moved to India after her mother passed away in 1989. Her father was a sherpa assisting the ace mountaineer, Bachendri Pal, in 1984. When he passed away, Dorjee was brought up by Pal.
Dorjee completed her basic course in mountaineering at TSAF in 2001 and the advanced course in 2003, after which she was employed as an instructor by the foundation to train other mountaineers in outdoor leadership and expedition courses.
So far, Dorjee has climbed and attempted more than eight peaks above 6000m, including Mt Satopanth (7075m), Mt Dharmasura (6420m), Mt Gangotri 1 (6120m), Mt Stok Kangri (6070m), Mt Kang Yaste 2 (6270m) and Mt UT Kangri (6030m) among others.
