Reach for the Top Summary

Reach for the Top Summary In English

Part I. Santosh Yadav

Santosh’s family background and birth Santosh Yadav has twice climbed Mount Everest. She is the only woman in the world to do so. She was bom in a society where the birth of a son was regarded as a blessing. Daughter was not welcome. A “holy man’ blessed Santosh’s mother thinking that she wanted a son. But Santosh’s grandmother Haryana as the sixth child. She is a sister to five brothers.

Non-traditional Santosh
She was named ‘Santosh’ meaning contentment. Santosh began living life on her own terms. Other girls wore traditional Indian dresses. But she wore shorts. She said that she was determined to choose a correct path. Others were to change themselves, not she.

Santosh’s great desire for education
Santosh’s parents were rich landowners. They could send her for education to nearby Delhi, the Capital. But they sent her to the village school. Santosh decided to fight the system. When she turned sixteen, she refused to marry. Most of the girls in her village used to get married at that age. She warned her parents that she would never marry if she did not get a proper education.

Santosh in a Delhi school
So she got admission in a school in Delhi. Her parents refused to pay her fees. But she told them that she would work part time to earn money. They agreed to pay for her education.

Goes to college in Jaipur
Santosh passed the high school. She went to Jaipur to join Maharani College. She got a room in Kasturba Hostel. It faced the Aravalli Hills. She used to see the villagers going up the hill and disappearing.

Takes to climbing
One day she decided to check herself why the climbers disappeared. She went there. She found nobody except a few climbers. They encouraged her to take to climbing. Then there was no looking back.

Joins Institute of Mountaineering
Santosh saved money. She enrolled herself in a.course at Uttarkashi’s Nehru Institute of Mountaineering. She went there directly from Jaipur. She wrote a letter to her father from there. In it she apologised for taking admis-sion in Uttarkashi.

A remarkable climber
There Santosh went on an expedition every year. She developed a remarkable resistance to cold and the altitude. She had an iron will, physical endurance and mental toughness. Her efforts started bearing fruits.

Conquers Mount Everest
In 1988 she had asked the Aravalli Moun-taineers if she could join them. 1992 became the year of her grand success. She conquered Mt. Everest when she was barely twenty years old. She thus became the youngest woman in the world to achieve it. She proved equally helpful to the fellow-climbers.

The other side of Santosh as a climber
During the 1992 Everest mission, Santosh Yadav provided special care to a climber. He lay dying at the South Col. She could not save him. But she managed to save another climber, Mohan Singh. He would have died if Santosh had not shared her oxygen with him.

Conquers Everest the second time
Within twelve months, Santosh was invited by Indo-Nepalese Women’s Expedition. She became its member. She then conquered the Everest a second time. She set a record as the only woman to have climbed the Everest twice.

Honoured by the Govt.
The Indian Government recognised her achievement. She was honoured with the Padmashri. It is one of the nation’s top honours.

Indescribable moments at the top
Santosh described her feelings when she was on the top of the world . She said that it took her some time for that moment to be understood. She unfurled the Indiem tricolour. She can’t describe that moment. She saw the Indian flag flying on the top of the world. It was a spiritual moment for her. She felt proud lift to be an Indian. Santosh acted as an environmentalist also. She brought down 500 kilograms of rubbish from the Himalayas.