Pune:
Nineteen-year-old Krishna Patil has conquered the Mount Everest, becoming the first Maharashtrian woman mountaineer to achieve the feat.
"Krishna, who was part of the ten-member 'Asian Trekking' team commissioned in Nepal, scaled the dream peak at 0700 hrs today," an elated Ranjana Patil, Krishna's mother, said, quoting a satellite communication received from her daughter, who has now returned to the base camp.
Krishna started the treacherous climb on April 12 and unfurled the Indian tri-colour on the 8,848-metre-high Everest this morning, she said.
Always fond of adventurous sports, the teenager underwent a rigorous training at Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi.
She was the youngest member of the squad comprising six Americans, two Germans and a Dutch woman, all in their forties.
Hrishikesh Yadav, the first Maharashtrian to scale the Everest in 1998, congratulated Krishna for her outstanding achievement at such a young age.