Reena Kaushal Dharmshaktu, the first Indian woman to ski to the South Pole, will receive the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award

Darjeeling, Aug. 17: Reena Kaushal Dharmshaktu, the first Indian woman to ski to the South Pole, will receive the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award on August 29 in Delhi.
The 40-year-old skier from Darjeeling will receive the award from President Pratibha Patil at the Rastrapati Bhavan at 11am.
The award from the ministry of sports consists of a trophy, a citation and Rs 5 lakh.
“I am happy that we are finally being recognised. I would like to thank my family members and my well-wishers for their constant support and encouragement,” Reena said over the phone from Delhi where she is currently based.
Reena was born in Darjeeling and she completed a mountaineering course from the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute.
She said the skiers who took part in the Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition had to brave blizzards, crevasses and temperatures below minus 40 degrees Celsius while skiing more than 900km in 40 days to reach the South Pole on December 30, 2009.
One participant each from Brunei, Cyprus, Ghana, India, Jamaica, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom had taken part in the expedition.
Reena said although she was selected for the trip, she was not sure of her participation as sponsors were hesitant to fund a relatively unknown sport in India. She added that she had approached more than 100 corporate houses and politicians for Rs 19 lakh that she needed for the expedition.
She had to borrow Rs 5 lakh from her friends for the 10-day pre-expedition training in New Zealand.
The expedition was finally sponsored by Kaspersky Lab, a software company.
“After spending a week at Punta Arenas in Chile as part of the pre-expedition preparation, the team reached a base camp in Antarctica on a specially equipped aircraft” she said.
The team then camped near the Patriot Hills, the only commercial base camp in Antarctica, that lies on the lee side of a range of mountains including Antarctica’s tallest peak, Mt Vinson.
“We had to adjust to 24-hour daylight that was so bright that it could cause blindness apart from the constant threat of sunburn because of lack of sufficient ozone above Antarctica,” said Reena.
She added the skier from Jamaica had to be flown back from the base camp because of frostbites.
-TT(VIVEK CHHETRI)