Shimla, Mar 8 (PTI) Chhonzin Angmo, a tribal from Chandigarh village of Kinnaur district, lost her eyesight at the age of eight but gained a vision. In her sights were now acts of courage, hard-won laurels, and a life marked by a series of adventures.
Twenty years since, Angmo, now 28, has had a whirlwind of successes, each enough to make even the fittest envious.
Angmo was the only woman in a team of people with disabilities who scaled the Siachen Glacier, the World’s Highest Battlefield, in 2021 under Operation Blue Freedom.
In 2018, she cycled from Manali to Khardung La (Ladakh), the world’s highest motorable road at an altitude of 18,000 feet, in 10 days, braving extreme temperatures.
In 2019, she finished a cycling expedition through the Nilgiris across three states in just six days.
Last July, Angmo completed a seven-day cycling expedition from Manali to Kalpa, traversing Spiti Valley and Kinnaur.
“My blindness is not my weakness but my strength, and my biggest dream is still on the horizon — scaling some of the highest mountains and seeing a future where no one is defined by what they lack but by what they achieve,” she told PTI. “My story does not end here. It has just begun.” In her journey, Angmo has found an ally in Helen Keller, the deaf-mute US author, who gave voice to the countless voiceless through her activism.
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision,” she says, quoting Keller.
After completing her schooling at the Mahabodhi Residential School in Ladakh, Angmo did her bachelor’s and master’s at Miranda House, Delhi University. She is currently working with the Union Bank of India as a customer service associate in Delhi.
She won a gold medal in swimming at the state level and participated in the national-level Judo championship, securing two bronzes in national-level marathon events (100m and 400m).
She participated in the 10-km Delhi marathon three times, as well as the Pink marathon and the Delhi Vedanta Marathon. She also played in national and zonal level football championships.
Passionate about mountains, Angmo completed a Basic Mountaineering course from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute in 2016 and was adjudged as the ‘Best Trainee.’ Angmo wasted no time after that and started scaling mountains.
In October 2024, she became the first blind Indian woman to complete the Everest Base Camp Trek at the altitude of 5,364 metres.
She scaled Mt Kanamo Peak in Spiti Valley (19,635 feet) in September 2022 and climbed Mount Kang Yatsae 2 (20,459 ft) in Leh-Ladakh the previous year.
Angmo was a member of a team of persons with disability that scaled an unnamed 6,000-metre peak in Ladakh on September 8, 2024.
Her achievements were not lost even on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who praised her during one of his monthly Mann ki Baat episodes.
Last year, Angmo received the ‘Sarvshresth Divyangjan’ National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities from the President of India.
In 2022, she received the NAB Madhu Sharma Young Achiever Award.
“Climbing mountain peaks has been my dream since childhood, but financial constraints were a big challenge, and now I will embark on scaling all the left-out mountains,” she said. PTI BPL VN VN VN
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