Kalpana Dash, first Odisha mountaineer to scale Mount Everest, died above the balcony area of the highest mountain of the world while descending from the summit point this afternoon. According to Meera Acharya, Director at the Department of Tourism, Kalpana Dash was part of a three-member women expedition team, locally managed by Dreamers Destination Treks.

Kalpana along with Kanchhi Maya Tamang from Nepal and Liyamu Ma from China made it to the summit of Mt Everest at around 12:55 pm today. “Dash fell ill on the descent and died near the balcony area,” Acharya quoted base camp officials as saying.

A 49-year-old climber from Dhenkanal district, Dash had already climbed different peaks in India, Nepal, Europe, South America and Australia. “Being a team leader of the Indian expedition, Das had successfully scaled Mt Everest from Nepal side 21 May, 2008.

A lawyer by profession, Dash scaled Mount Everest on 21 May 2008, along with a team of five members from the United States, Canada and Nepal. She had attempted to climb Mount Everest twice before, once in 2004 and once in 2006, but failed due to bad weather and health conditions.

She also successfully summited Mount Kilimanjaro _ South Africa highest peak Tanzania Range 5,895m _ on 9 October 2014 (without oxygen), Mount Aconcagua _ South America highest peak Andes Range 6,962m on 16 January 2015 (without oxygen), Mount Elbrus _ Europe Highest peak Caucasus Range 5,642m on 31 July 2015 (without oxygen), Mount Kosciuszko _ Australia Main Land 2,228m on 3 December 2015 (without oxygen).