Flight Lieutenant becomes first IAF woman to climb Everest

A 27-year-old Flight Lieutenant today became the first woman from the Indian Air Force to scale 8848-metre-high world's tallest peak Mt Everest along with a male climber.

Nivedita Chaudhary, who is part of an 11-member all women IAF expedition, reached the summit at around 9 am after a gruelling four-hour climb along with her co-climber Corporal Raju Sindhu (26) from Haryana.

It was virtually a hat-trick for Indian climbers with as many as five summiting the Everest in the last two days. A Haryana couple Sushma and Vikas Kaushik scaled the peak yesterday along with Premlata Agrawal (48), who was the oldest Indian woman climber to achieve the feat.

The Air Force woman officer and the Corporal were accompanied by two Sherpa guides to the summit, according to Durga Bhandari, manager of Nepal office of Rimo Expeditions that arranged the expedition.

Reports said that more Indian Air Force women climbers and their male compatriots were preparing to launch more summit bids in the coming days.

The team, which is accompanied by a doctor and eight male support climbers, is led by Group Captain Narendra Kumar Dahiya.

All the women climbers in the IAF team are first timers to the Everest.