First Maharashtrian girl to scale Mount Everest
It was truly inspiring to read about nineteen year old Krishna Patil’s stupendous effort in scaling Mount Everest. The Pune-based Patil was part of a commercial expedition organised by Asian Trekking Agency in Nepal. Patil (25) has become only the second Maharashtrian to conquer the 8,848-metre high peak. Surendra Chavan was the first from the state to achieve the feat, in 1998, as part of the Yadav-led expedition. The teen went with two climbers from the United States and seven Sherpas. On May 20, Krishna and two of the Sherpas started from Camp 4 at 9 p.m., climbing through the night to reach the peak at 7 a.m. the next day. Krishna was involved in athletics from childhood. Her mother introduced her to tennis, swimming, karate and skating. While in school, Krishna did several treks with institutes in Pune. During her Class 10 vacation she joined a course at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) in Uttarkashi, where she secured an ‘A’ grade and went on to do an advanced course. ...