Bhubaneswar: In memory of mountaineer Kalpana Dash, the outfit she wore while climbing Mount Everest in 2004, has been put on display at the State museum here.
Kalpana died while descending the Mt. Everest on May 23. Kalpana, 49, was descending from the peak when she fell sick due to shortage of oxygen and was subsequently declared dead. Her death has been blamed on the ‘traffic jam’ of mountaineers near the peak.
A pall of gloom also descended on her village. People in her native place in Dhenkanal district grieved for the brave woman, who had the distinction of becoming the first Odia woman to scale Mt Everest.
Notably, Kalpana, along with Kanchhi Maya Tamang from Nepal and Liyamu Ma from China, made it to the summit of Mt Everest on May 23 but fell it during the descent. As her death happened at an altitude above 8,660 metres, it has been a herculean task for the State machineries to bring her body from the mountain top to her native place.
Das had already made her State proud by climbing different peaks in India, Nepal, Europe, South America and Australia and scaling Mt Everest from the Nepal side in 2008.
