How I Went From Cleaning Houses to Conquering World's Highest Peaks: Baljeet Kaur's Journey

Baljeet Kaur has many firsts to her name. The 27-year-old is the first Indian woman to scale five 8,000m peaks in less than 30 days. She has also climbed two 8,000m peaks with no supplemental oxygen, including Mount Annapurna.       

Baljeet has had an incredible drive since she was a child. She started by climbing small hills near her village. But her love for mountaineering started during an NCC camp when she was 20. Since then, there is no mountain high enough for this go-getter. 

"After college hours, I used to work in people’s houses, cleaning and cooking. I knew how to cook a full meal since I turned eight,” says Kaur, who also took fitness classes online during the COVID-19 lockdown to chase her mountaineering dream.

She even ran a crowdfunding campaign with her mother selling her jewellery to support her expeditions. 

She submitted Mount Annapurna, Kanchenjunga, Everest and Lhotse in less than a month.

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Edited by Padmashree Pande