Few are lives that are ready to go all-in and realize their dreams. One of them is Indian mountaineer Santosh Yadav, a woman of grit, determination, and resilience.

While many know the achievements of Bachendri Pal- the first female Indian mountaineer to scale Mt. Everest, the world’s highest mountain peak, Santosh Yadav is a woman who has achieved this momentous feat, not once, but twice.

There is a litany of achievements this illustrious and weather-toughened mountaineer can boast of. Yadav’s own life has been a strenuous ascent towards achieving her dreams.

Hers is an against-all-odds story, this courageous woman is a driven and passionate soul who seeks to overcome every hurdle in her way.

Read on to find out how Santosh Yadav went on to become one of the greatest mountaineers of our time!

From a Dreamer to an Achiever: The Early Life of Santosh Yadav

Yadav was born on 10th October 1967 in a Haryanvi family in Rewari district. The sixth daughter in a family of five boys, Yadav grew up in a rural household where social taboos against women were already strong.

She had to force her way through her studies. Despite parental insistence to get her married at the young age of 16. Yadav was determined to avoid a life of obscurity.

She studied at Jaipur’s Maharani College. An early riser and an observant learner, Yadav watched young climbers scale the Aravalli Hills. This is where her fascination with adventure began.

Yadav, a meritorious Economics graduate was keen on taking the Civil Service Examination. However, she was confronted with a tough choice. Thereafter, she chose her own destiny.

A Tryst with Heights

She joined the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering to engage her obsession with scaling mountains. As a result, she did not go home after appearing for the Civil Service Exam and joined the institute directly.

Her father was furious at her decision. He was concerned that mountaineering was not a feminine profession and that it would limit his daughter’s marital prospects.

Yet she underwent a month of grueling training at the institute. However, tragedy struck when young Santosh had to stay back to tend to him because he had a severe hairline fracture. But being the driven personality she is, her determination to see the Himalayas for herself, prevailed.

She also conquered another significant challenge. Yadav naturally has small lungs, which was daunting enough for a prospective mountaineer. A girl of slight build, Yadav often cut a diminutive figure as compared to her classmates at the mountaineering institute. However, she excelled at all her physical training tests, mostly because she was a habitual early riser.

According to Yadav herself, lungs function at their best during early morning hours because the saturation level of oxygen is maximum then. Waking up early, thus, was a benefit for her as she was also the subject of a Japanese study that examined the lung capacity of Everest climbers.

Setting Records and Scaling Everest Over and Over

Mount White Needle

In 1989, Santosh Yadav got the prestigious opportunity to join the 9-Nation International Climbing Camp-cum-Expedition to Nun-Kun area. Out of the 31 strong team, Yadav was the only female member to undertake the expedition. After she successfully completed it and scaled Mount White Needle, which was an arduous climb of 21,653 ft.

East Karakoram

It was after this expedition that Yadav set her sights on Mt. Everest, a peak that had scared many and had also claimed several lives. In 1990, she was selected as a member of the Indo-Taiwanese Saser Kangri-I (25,170 ft) Expedition. By now, Yadav had gained a reputation to take the most difficult routes to mountain tops, and she repeated this feat here as well. She became the world’s first woman to scale the highest peak of Eastern Karakoram from the West Face Route.

When Santosh Yadav Scaled Mount Everest

In 1992, Yadav began her ascent to Mount Everest and successfully completed it from the difficult Kangshung Pass. The achievement made her the youngest woman to do so, being only 20 years of age when she climbed Everest first. However, she further engaged her obsession with the peak, climbing it again in 1993 with an Indo-Nepalese team.

Yadav also displayed immense courage and perseverance which is rarely seen. During her 1992 mission, she tried saving the lives of two mountaineers who had collapsed due to lack of oxygen. While she was unsuccessful in saving one, the other climber, Mohan Singh was revived because Yadav shared her oxygen with him.

Another exciting incident that displays her ability to tackle crisis calmly was when she developed third-degree frostbite while climbing down Everest. Even though the doctors told her she could lose all her fingers, Yadav continued making her way down. It was because she believed her instructors at the institute who said that the best cure for high altitude risks is to shift to a lower height. Such was her will to complete the expedition that she ended up completing four days’ worth of distance in just 23 hours.

Awards and Accolades Won by Santosh Yadav

Yadav was conferred the Padmashree by the Indian government in 2000 for her achievements in mountaineering. She is also an accomplished motivational speaker who has delivered speeches at several national institutes.

A passionate advocate for adventure sports and environment, in her words, had she not been a mountaineer, she would have been an environmentalist.

An expert in disaster management, team building and leadership, Yadav has been invited to share her experiences at various lectures and talks. She maintains an active lifestyle through Yoga and is herself a trained Yoga teacher from the Bihar School of Yoga in Munger, Bihar.

Currently, a retired Indo-Tibetan Border Police Officer, Yadav maintains a dignified profile and doesn’t mind competition. She says that it is important to accept life with grace and tact, instead of engaging in mindless competition. Her optimistic demeanour has given strong life lessons to many and thus, Santosh Yadav is a person beyond her achievements.

In scaling heights, she herself has become the possessor of lofty spirits that have inspired several people.