Mother of two gears up to conquer Mt Everest

In a rear feat, a mother of two, Premlata Agarwal is gearing up to scale 8,848m Mount Everest in the upcoming summer season.

The 45-year-old Agarwal, who has several expeditions to her credit, is scheduled to begin her conquest on March 25 and is expected to return on June 1.

"Having stood up to the various tests, a mountaineer looks to the greatest challenge of them all - Mount Everest," said Agarwal, whose initiation into adventure sport came by chance and was subsequently motivated by Bachendri Pal, the first woman to scale Mount Everest.

Sponsored by Tata group of companies, Agarwal would undergo various training sessions at Kathmandu's ASTREK climbing wall before setting her foot on the world's highest mountain range.

She would undergo map reading training on March 31 while between April 7 and 11, Agarwal will prepare herself for glacier walking, traverse, ascent and descent on ice with the help of an axe and crampons and walking on fixed rope.

The 45-year-old will then trek to Khumjung (12,398 ft) to get acclimatise to the conditions before beginning her final campaign on April 14.

Agarwal was part of the first Indian women's Thar Desert Expedition team in 2007 and has also climbed Mount Killimanjaro (19300 ft) in Tanzania - the highest free standing (Volcanic) mountain in the world - under the leadership of Pal in 2008.

Her 40-day long camel safari during the Thar Desert Expedition along the international border from Bhuj in Gujarat - Rann of Kutch - Thar in Rajasthan - upto Wagah Border in Punjab, has been recognised as a "National record" and also found a place in the Limca Book.

"I had participated with my elder daughter and we became the first mother-daughter team to have achieved this feat across Thar," she recollected.

"I would like to be the first from my state of Jharkhand to attempt Mount Everest in the summer of 2011," added a confident Agarwal said.