Chhanda Gayen

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Chhanda Gayen (9 July 1979 – 20 May 2014) was an Indian mountaineer, martial artist, explorer, and self-defense teacher from West Bengal. She became the first Indian to climb two mountains taller than 8,000 meters in one trip: Mount Everest and Lhotse. She completed the Everest-to-Lhotse traverse in 22 hours on 18 May 2013. Born in Kona, West Bengal, she received the Sera Avishkar prize from ABP Ananda in 2013. On 20 May 2014, she went missing after an avalanche while descending Kanchenjunga in Nepal, along with two Sherpas; they were later declared dead.