Meet Shital Mahajan, the first woman to skydive over North Pole, South Pole, and Mount Everest

Darr ke aage jeet hai… goes a line from a popular advertisement that signifies that conquering your fear can take you places.

For skydiver Shital Mahajan (41), it’s more than just conquering fear, it’s going where no woman has gone before.

This month, she became the first woman in the world to jump off a helicopter from a height of 21,500 ft in front of Mount Everest. Mahajan also became the first woman in the world to skydive over the three poles–North Pole, South Pole, and Mount Everest.

In the process, she achieved many national and world records over a period of three days.

By 2006, Mahajan had completed skydiving over the South Pole, but Mount Everest was not within reach, yet. She went on to skydive in all seven continents, got married in 2008, and had twins a year later.

But that single skydive remained unfinished, but not unattainable.

“Last year, I decided I had to give it a try. Another woman had completed Mount Everest and the South Pole, and had only the North Pole left. This spurred me to work hard to realise my dream of skydiving over the three Poles,” Mahajan says.

With the budget of over Rs 65 lakh for the dive being a huge deterrent, she cold-called and approached over 200 companies. She received a few sponsorships, out of which the Reliance Foundation formed a major part, and she put in 20% from her own pocket.

The biggest frontier

Once this was sorted, the sky was the only limit.

On November 7, Mahajan and her team climbed to Lukla, Phadking, and then Namche Bazaar in the Everest region and reached the Syangboche Airport, acclimatising to the altitude along the way.

On November 11, Mahajan completed her first parachute jump from 5000 ft above ground level (AGL)/17,500ft and did a landing at 12,500 ft at Syangboche Airport in Nepal. In this jump, Wendy Smith, the legendary skydiver from New Zealand, was her instructor inside the aircraft. She became the first woman in the world to complete the Pole Challenge and achieve two national records—the first Indian civilian woman to skydive in front of Mount Everest and the first Indian woman to skydive over three poles.

The following day, Mahajan did a jump with the Indian flag at Syangboche Airport from 8,000 ft, becoming the first Indian woman to do so.

On November 13, she did one jump at Amadablam mountain base camp from 23,000 ft and landed at 4600/1509 1ft. In this jump, Paul Henry de Baere, the renowned skydiver from France, was HALO skydiving instructor.

She also performed the best jump of her life from 21,500 ft in front of Mount Everest and landed at highest altitude at Kala Patthar at 17,444 ft /5,317 m. She achieved both national and world records for the highest altitude skydiving landing done by a woman.

Mahajan explains that during an Everest skydive, one needs oxygen not just in the plane, but also bailout bottles in free fall. 

“Since the air is less dense, parachutes (canopies) perform differently at high altitudes. Specifically, they open slightly differently, fly much faster, and their flare (braking) on landing is much less powerful. Because of this, those skydiving Everest use much larger parachutes than normal. Even so, the effects of the altitude are definitely noticeable,” she said in a Facebook post.

She admits that it’s been the “scariest jump” so far. “I had heard stories of hypoxia and skydiving deaths in the region. There was a moment when I felt that I did not have enough oxygen, but all was fine. It was just a feeling of panic—the kind when you think whether the parachute would open or not,” she adds.

The determination to succeed

But there was another thing she had to conquer, apart from fear. One was proving all her naysayers wrong, and the other, the determination to demonstrate that Indian women can do anything they set their minds to, if they are provided the opportunity.

Mahajan credits the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Minister of Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia for the continuous support.

The minister also lauded her achievement on X and said, “It is a delight to see an Indian hold so many national and international records. Last year, we announced the National Air Sports Policy to promote Air Sports in India. I feel a sportsperson like Shital Mahajan is setting a great example for the generations to come.”

From her first skydiving experience over the North Pole in 2004, Mahajan continued to hear voices of discouragement.

“I had heard enough of, ‘you are a woman, why do you want to do this’ or ‘you cannot do it’ and I wanted to prove to the world that I could do this,” she says.

It is this junoon (passion) and the inner voice saying, main kucch khaas kar sakti hoon (I can do something unique) that has seen Mahajan through two decades of skydiving.

But it all started with a chance encounter in Pune, Mahajan’s home city—of meeting her friend’s brother, Kamal Singh Oberh, an Indian Air Force officer, that ignited an interest and love for skydiving.

“I was hanging out with my friend when she told me her brother was going skydiving that day. I didn’t know what it was, saw it, and found it cool and fascinating,” she recalls.

Later, she saw Oberh’s photograph on the front page of a newspaper when he became the first Indian to skydive over North and South Poles.

“I chased him until he understood I was serious about the whole thing. He invited me for some programmes, and in 2004, I had done my first skydive over the North Pole, that too without any training,” she says.

However, it took some convincing for her parents to agree to the idea. Her father, who was working with Tata Motors, got a partial sponsorship from the company, and he took a loan to cover the rest of the cost. And, the rest, as they say, is history.

Mahajan has also completed skydiving training and instructor training from the US.

After getting married and having her twins, everyone thought Mahajan’s junoon was laid to rest. But it was a passion that could not be buried or curtailed.

When her twins became a year old, she returned to skydiving and also roped in her husband, completing 57 jumps together and becoming the first Indian civilian couple to do skydiving together.

Very few know that skydiving is a competitive aerosport, and she’s determined to change the perception.

“My dream is to lead the Indian team for the Championships in 2025,” she says.

Today, Mahajan holds 25 national records, two Asia records, and eight world records and is also a Padma Shri award winner.

Her next frontier is space. “I want to be the first woman to skydive in space. I hope to achieve this in the next two years,” she says.

For those interested in skydiving as a sport or a form of adventure, she advises, “You have to face your fear and test your limits.”