Orissa's Kalpana Das scales Mount Everest

Breaking News! Kalpana Das, a mountaineer from the Sariapara village in Dhenkanal district of Orissa, successfully climbed the 8,848-meter Mount Everest peak along with a team of climbers from Canada, US and Nepal. She reached the peak at 11.30 AM today.

Kalpana Das is a lawyer by profession. She made attempts to climb the Mt. Everest in 2004 and 2006, but failed on both occasions. Kalpana had scaled 7,300metres without oxygen in 2004. Two years later, she went up to 8,048metres, entering an area called 'the death zone'.

Despite failing twice in her bid to climb the Mount Everest, she never lost hope and showed high determination and confidence. Kalpana used to practise dawn-to-dusk every day on the 785-metre Kapila Hill, near her village. She had also undergone a training session with Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to climb Mt. Everest. Certainly, 38-year old Kalpana Das has brought glory to Orissa, which never produced any famous mountaineer. She is the first Oriya to scale Mt. Everest.