Baljeet Kaur (Mountaineer)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Baljeet Kaur

• Baljeet Kaur is an Indian mountain climber, who has many mountaineering feats registered to her name. She hit the headlines after she was pronounced dead following her disappearance while climbing down Mount Annapurna in April 2023.

• At Post-Graduate Degree College, Baljeet enrolled in the National Cadet Corps (NCC) as a cadet. Later, she was promoted and given the rank of Senior Under Officer (SUO), the highest rank that a cadet can get.

  

• Baljeet, in an interview, revealed that to support her parents monetarily, she used to work as a house help while pursuing her graduation. She said,
  

  After the college hours, I used to work in people’s houses, cleaning and cooking. I knew how to cook a full meal since I was eight years old.”

• While studying in college, she took a keen interest in acting and joined several acting troupes. She also participated in many stage shows and street plays.

• When she was in college, she joined the National Service Scheme (NSS) and The Bharat Scouts & Guides as a volunteer.

• While giving an interview, Baljeet said that initially, she did not consider opting for mountaineering as a profession, but her interest in mountain climbing arose after she learned of Malavath Purna, who climbed Mount Everest in 2014, through an article in a newspaper. Talking about it, she said,
  

  I never thought of mountaineering as a career option. In 2014, when I was waiting for my examination results, I came across a newspaper article about a girl from Rajasthan who had climbed Mount Everest. That article inspired me a lot. And that was the beginning of my dream of becoming a Mountaineer.”

• In 2015, she attended many mountaineering camps held by the NCC following her application to join the NCC Girls Everest Expedition team. In the camps, she learnt various ways of climbing different types of mountains.

• To join the NCC Girls Everest Expedition team, Baljeet underwent two phases of the selection module. In the first phase, she was sent to Darjeeling, where she attended a mountaineering course at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) in which she got an A+ grade. Thereafter, she underwent the second phase of the selection module for a month at the High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) in Gulmarg, Kashmir. After completing the selection process, Baljeet and ten other NCC girls were inducted into the NCC Girls Everest Expedition team.

• In 2015, Baljeet and her team went to Uttarakhand to climb Mount Trishul. She and her team were ordered to return after they had climbed 6,350 metres due to bad weather.

• Baljeet, along with the NCC team, went to Nepal in 2016 to climb Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak. However, before reaching the peak of Mount Everest, she was forced to abandon her climb and return to the base camp as her oxygen mask stopped working. While giving an interview, she talked about it and said,
  

  On my final push for the summit of Mt. Everest around 8,548 m I had an issue in my Oxygen mask and the supply of oxygen gradually stopped. Me and my Sherpa did our best to fix the issue but couldn’t succeed. I was just 300m away from the summit of EVEREST but I had to take the decision to abandon my attempt and turned around from 8,548m. I returned with a promise that I’ll come back again to stand on its summit one day.”

  

• She climbed Friendship Peak situated in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, in 2017.

  

• Baljeet was selected by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) for the Everest Massif Expedition in 2019. The expedition was planned in 2020 but got postponed till 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Baljeet Kaur and Gunbala Sharma hoisted the Indian flag together on the peak of Mount Pumori, located 7,161 metres above sea level, on 12 May 2021. Baljeet Kaur made the record of being the first woman from India to summit Mount Pumori.

  

• She summited Mount Kun in August 2021. The peak is located 7,077 metres above sea level at Suru Valley, ‎Kargil‎, ‎Ladakh‎.

• In October 2021, she became the first woman mountaineer from India to summit Mount Dhaulagiri.

  

• Baljeet Kaur made a record for climbing five-eight thousanders, i.e., Mount Anapurna on 28 April 2022, Kangchenjunga on 12 May 2022, the world’s highest mountain Mount Everest on 21 May 2022, the fourth-highest mountain in the world Mount Lhotse on 22 May 2022, the fifth-highest mountain in the world Mount Makalu on 28 May 2022, within 30 days.
  

  

  

• Grehalakshmi, an Indian magazine, published an article on Baljeet Kaur in July 2022.

  

• For climbing Mount Manaslu without supplementary oxygen in November 2022, Baljeet made a record. In an interview, Baljeet talked about it and said,
  

  This climbing season was not easy as there were lots of bad weather conditions throughout with lots of rain at the base camp and heavy snowfall at higher camps. Avalanches added to the difficulty and misery which took some innocent lives of sherpas and also some very well-known climbers. I was also stuck in one of the avalanches between camp3 and camp4. After multiple summit attempts, I and my sherpa Mingma Dai successfully made it to the revered true summit on the 30th of September. I would like to dedicate this summit to all the young and upcoming women mountaineers of India and want to be the inspiration and motivation for them to take mountaineering as a sport both as a passion and profession.”

  

• With the intent of climbing another summit without supplementary oxygen, Baljeet Kaur set out to reach the top of Mount Annapurna in Nepal in April 2023. She successfully scaled the top of the mountain without supplementary oxygen; however, while climbing down from the top, she met with an accident and went missing near Camp IV, which is situated at an altitude of 7,300 metres, on 18 April 2023 and was declared dead.

• In the wee hours of 19 April 2023, the base camp received an SOS signal from Baljeet, and the authorities immediately sent three helicopters to rescue her from the mountain. Her location was then pinpointed with the help of GPS. After getting rescued, Baljeet was flown to Kathmandu, where she underwent a medical checkup in a hospital. On the same day, she posted an Instagram story through which she informed her followers about her well-being.

  

• Baljeet Kaur has shared her experiences through many talk shows including TEDx.

• Baljeet talked about the monetary crunch she faced during the early phase of her mountaineering career through an Instagram post. She said that since she had no money, she could not train under a professional coach as a result of which she resorted to learning basic mountaineering skills through the Internet.

• Baljeet took part in a 9,490-kilometre relay Marathon and made a record for completing it in 960 hours.

• “Always try your luck” is Baljeet Kaur’s favourite quote.