Krushnaa Patil

Krushnaa Patil belongs to Mumbai, Maharashtra and is a pioneer Indian mountaineer. Her glory outshined when she climbed the earth’s highest peak, Mount Everest, at a young age of 19. To add to her beauty, she is the first civilian from Maharashtra to meet success at such young age. Many younger Mountaineers did achieve the same feat and even surpassed it, but her achievement still maintains the same charm as before.

Krushnaa’s adventurous side did not limit to just Mount Everest. She went on to complete the Seven Summits in the year 2010. However, she was not able to finish the last summit out of the total Seven Summit on Mount McKinley due to technical glitches. This left her with seven incomplete summits. She got a lot of support from the government after climbing Mount Everest, and she proved her worth time and gain in the form of incredible spirit and courage. Before her, Dicky Dolma was the record holder to climb Mount Everest successfully. On 22 May 2010, Arjun Vajpai broke Krushnaa’s record.

Interestingly, Krushnaa did not aim for mountaineering since childhood. She wanted to become a choreographer and performer. But then life took a dramatic turning point in her life, and she enrolled herself for the pre-Everest Expedition. Her parents were in constant support during the days of struggle and even took a loan to provide her the greatest opportunity of her life. After her grand success, things became easy, and money, prizes, and accolades flowed in that helped her to fund the journey to Antarctic and South American mountains. Patil lives with the spirit of sports and aims to climb many more peaks.

Krushnaa did not stop at mountaineering and is also a part of the program that focuses on water conservation and access to the same to all around the world. Eight courageous women from six different continents came across to make this program a successful venture. Her other notable work towards society is being a motivational speaker. There are many awards credited to her. She received Rajiv Gandhi Puraskar in 2009. It was followed by Kesari Lokmanaya Tilak Felicitation and then later came Hirkani Puraskar. She was also awarded Indra Gandhi Puraskar in 2009. In the year 2010, Maharashtra Ratna and Today’s Youth Asia Award added to the prize list.

Another Version...

Krushnaa Patil is India's youngest mountaineer to climb Mt. Everest, which is the Earth's highest peak.  Other more inexperienced climbers later surpassed this feat of her. Her family vacation had always been on mountains, the places she has loved from childhood. But as a child, she was more passionate about dance than sports. In her school, she used to be a part of the contemporary dance team. She always wanted to be a choreographer as she loved to dance so much but mountaineering just came her way, and she grasped the opportunities. It made a huge turning point in her life when she went to Mt. Everest expedition.

Her parents didn't get any sponsorship for her and had to fund her after taking massive loans to keep her going. She scaled the highest peak of the world on 21 May 2009 and became the second youngest woman after Dicky Dolma to climb Mt. Everest. Three people have broken this record after that, the youngest one to hold the record is Malavath Purna, who climbed Mt. Everest at the age of 13 years and 11 months. 

Later, after her achieving the feat of being the youngest to climb, the Government provided her with lots of money, prizes and had also gained respect but this came only after she proved herself. Then she started funding for Antartic and South- America expeditions. She did not limit herself to climbing the highest peak; she went ahead to complete Seven Summits in 2010. But unfortunately due to some technical assistant she couldn't finish the last summit, Mount Mc Kinley. 

Krushnaa is also a part of the programme which aims at water conservation and giving access to water in remote areas of the world. She is also a motivational speaker. She has also received many prestigious awards. In 2009, she received Rajiv Gandhi Puruskar Kesari Lokmanaya Tilak Felicitation followed by Hirkani Puraskar. Also in 2009, she was awarded Indra Gandhi Puraskar.