By Manasi Nene
Anshu Jamsenpa has just made history, for a whole bunch of reasons. Not only did she scale Mount Everest, but she did it twice in just a few days, also making her the first woman to do so. She reached its peak early on Sunday morning and all she wanted to do, according to her publicity representative, is to unfurl the national flag atop the mountain, and pay homage to Buddha.
The 32-year-old mother-of-two left the Everest base camp on the 19th, and scaled the mountain for the second time on that trip by the 21st. However, this isn’t the only time she’s managed this – she has reached the peak five times now, twice on the same expedition in May 2011 and once in May 2014. On this trip, she had even been blessed by the Dalai Lama before leaving Guwahati. She left with her husband Tsering Wange, who is also the head of the Arunanchal Pradesh Mountaineering and Adventure Sports Association.
Jamsenpa joins a phenomenally talented group of Indian women including Krishnaa Patil, the youngest person to climb the mountain, and Arunima Sinha, who climbed the mountain even after one of her legs had to be amputated.