he first woman in the world to scale the summit of Mount Everest twice in a season, Anshu Jamsenpa hails from Bomdila in Arunachal Pradesh. The Indian mountaineer is also the fastest double summitter to do it within a period of five days. Not this alone, Jamsenpa is also the only woman to do fastest double ascents of the highest crest in the world. She is also the first Indian woman to scale Mount Everest on five occasions and the first woman as well as the first mother to complete double ascents twice.

Awarded the country’s fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri in 2021, it was on May 12, 2011 that Jamsenpa stood atop the Mount Everest for the first time. Two years later, in 2013, she summited the Mount Everest during the 2013 North East India Everest Expedition which was led by Surjit Singh Leishangthem. On achieving the rare honour of standing atop the 8848 m peak, the Arunachal Pradesh government recommended her name for the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award. And on September 25, 2018, President Ram Nath Kovind presented the nation’s highest adventure award for 2017 to Jamsenpa for adventure. Not only this, she has been awarded Woman Achiever of the Year 2011-12 award by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) in Guwahati in June 2012. 

A year before, the talented mountaineer was conferred the CNN-IBN Young Indian Leader Award. She was given with the Tourism Icon of the Year Award by the Arunachal Pradesh government in 2017 and has been conferred PhD by Arunachal University of Studies for her achievements in the field adventure sports. The mother of two daughters, Jamsenpa is married to Tsering Wange, the president of Arunachal Mountaineering and Adventure Sports Association. On April 2, 2017, Jamsenpa started her Everest climb from Guwahati after taking the blessings the 14th Dalai Lama. It took her 38 days to acclimatise with the region’s weather at the 17,600 ft Everest Base Camp and on April 4, she began her main journey. And on May 16, Jamsenpa unfurled the Indian National Flag as she stood atop the highest peak on the planet with 17 other climbers. Three days later, on May 19, she began her second gruelling trek with Nepali climber Furi Sherpa, hiking continuously till around 10 in the night. Jamsenpa began climbing early the next morning, only taking a brief break before the final summit hike. She reached the apex finally at 7.45 am on May 21