Thirty five years ago, Bachendri Pal became India’s India's first woman climber to scale Mount Everest, the day is still itched in her mind and soul. The achievement still inspires her to scale more heights.  

She achieved this fate just a day before her birthday on May 23, 1984. 

Tata Steel organised a programme ‘No Mountain Too High-Celebrating the Limitless Possibilities of Human Spirit’ (an interactive and inspiring session with Bachendri Pal and 10 Everesters trained by her) to mark the feat at SNTI Auditorium.

In an informal interaction with the media she said that great leaders of Tata Steel like JRD Tata inspired her to experiment. Going down the memory lane, Pal, who was recently conferred with Padma Bhushan by the Government of India said that renowned mountaineer Colonel Premchand, motivated her to take a mountaineering course at Indian Mountaineering Foundation.

Born on 24 May 1954 in a village in the Himalayas named Nakuri in Uttarkashi, District of Garhwal, what is now Uttarakhand, a state in the northern part of India, Pal was one of seven children to Hansa Devi and Shri Kishan Singh Pal.

When Pal joined Tata Steel, her department was known as Welfare and Sports Department. When Ms Pal returned to Jamshedpur after her Everest expedition, she was given a grand reception at Rabindra Bhawan. There, the chairman and managing director of Tata Steel Russi Mody announced that a full fledged department will be created and Pal will be empowered as a manager. This department was named as Tata Youth Adventure Centre. Later on this same department was renamed as Tata Steel Adventure Foundation at the behest of Russi Mody.

Various programs were conducted in Dalma Hills like hill walking and mountain biking. Hundreds of people used to join like from different colleges like Womens’ College and Co-operative College.

Earlier the GTs from Tata Steel used to go to Darjeeling for adventure sports. But when Pal joined and the department was there these people were enrolled for training under TSAF. Various programs were now conducted in the hill town of Uttarkashi.

Pal took TSAF to new heights under her aegis. She went to various places around the world to gain new knowledge and experience, like New Zealand, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, UK and USA.