Shivangi Pathak, who became the youngest Indian woman to climb Mount Everest at just 16 years of age, is not just a regular teenager. She is the face of youngsters who make sure they achieve their goal once they set sights on it.
Hailing from Haryana’s Hisar district, Pathak reached the top of Mt Everest, after her one-month long trek which she began in April 2018 from the Nepal side. After completing the marvellous expedition, she accomplished several other things.
Pathak, who was in Pune recently, spoke about her inspiration and the support that she has received from her family to conquer not only heights but achieve success. She recalls that when she was 15 she was intrigued by google because it was one place where you could find about anything and everything. “So I googled my name, but nothing popped up!” she says, adding that her mother had a good laugh at her disappointment and said, “One could find his/ her name only if they had made a name for themselves, so first of all you’ll have to create your own identity, be recognised for your work, only then will you find your name on google!”
Pathak says that this was the turning point for her and it motivated her to do something. Being a patriotic person, she wanted to do something worthwhile for the nation. She recalls that it was during a seminar back in her hometown, which gave her an in-depth idea about mountaineering. “My mother jokingly said, ‘Now you go climb the Everest!’ and I must admit I took the light-hearted comment pretty seriously, and that is exactly where my journey began and I went on to scale it,” she adds.
But her passion for climbing did not stop at Everest. She also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Elbrus which are the highest peaks of South Africa and Europe, respectively. Pathak wants to explore all the Seven Summits, conquering the highest peaks of all the seven continents.
Ask Pathak what her success mantra is and she says, “I’ve also wanted to be recognised as a person for who I am and my potential which is something that has always kept me motivated in life and I’ve never looked back ever since.”
Other than her potential that keeps pushing her forward, Pathak says that she would have never achieved anything without her family’s support. “I am where I am today solely because of them,” she says. She points out that after her family the one person who has motivated her through the course of journey is Anil Choudhary — her mentor.
Since there is a plethora of sports, we wonder what made her prioritse mountaineering. To which she says, “While growing up I was never interested in sports. Also, I do not have anyone in my family who was a sportsperson but I’ve always wanted to do something different, something to escape the rat race that everyone ends up following.” She is of the opinion that mountaineering is a bit uncommon. “Not too many people opt for it and even if they do, very few survive through the journey so I got into it because I wanted myself to be recognised as ‘Mountaineer Shivangi Pathak’,” she says.
Other than being a mountaineer, Pathak hopes to be a role model. She says, “I have interacted with kids in many schools because there was a time in my life when I’d sit and listen to somebody else’s speech and seek motivation. Now that I am a little capable of doing something myself, I wish to tell others about my own journey and inspire them to build more confidence. I would try inspiring them in every way possible.”
