A blind climber with three of the 7 summits

Chhonzin Angmo stood on top of Everest at about 8:34 on the morning of 19 May 2025. She was 29, and she has been blind since she was eight. By the end of that year she had added Elbrus and Kilimanjaro, which puts her three summits into the 7, with the other four as her stated goal.

Her story went round again on 21 October 2026, when News18 gave her a segment on its morning show. That is a good moment to set out what she has climbed so far and what is still ahead.

From Kinnaur to a mountaineering course

Angmo grew up in Chango, a village in the Hangrang Valley of Kinnaur, in Himachal Pradesh. She lost her sight at eight after a reaction to medication. In an interview with Reach Ladakh she credits her parents, and a place at the Mahabodhi Residential School in Leh, with keeping her education going. She went on to a degree and a master's at Miranda House, Delhi University, and works for Union Bank of India.

The idea of climbing came from reading about Erik Weihenmayer, who in 2001 became the first blind person to reach the summit of Everest and later finished the 7 summits himself. In Delhi she joined a basic mountaineering course at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports in Manali. The course was open to disabled and non-disabled trainees alike, and she was named best trainee in a group of 30.

The years after that built her experience step by step. She climbed Kang Yatse II (6,250 m20,505 ft) in Ladakh and joined a team of disabled climbers on an unnamed 6,000 m19,685 ft peak. In 2021 she was the only woman with a disability in the Operation Blue Freedom team that went onto the Siachen Glacier. She also cycled long mountain roads, including Manali to Khardung La in 2018.

Everest in May 2025

Union Bank of India sponsored the expedition, which she climbed with Pioneer Adventure's team under expedition leader Lt Col (Retd) Romil Barthwal. Her guides were Dandu Sherpa and Om Gurung, and she climbed Lobuche first to acclimatize.

She has been open about what was hard. The ladders in the Khumbu Icefall are walked upright by most climbers; she crossed them on hands and knees, following her guide's instructions and feeling his movements. On the summit push she was exhausted and asked for a rest, and was told no, because the climbers behind were moving in single file on the same fixed rope. Before that push, Barthwal had told her: "The real adventure starts now. Finish it calmly."

The Pioneer Adventure chairman, speaking from base camp, described her as the first blind Indian woman on the summit. Back home in Chango, her family watched a video of her holding the Indian flag on top.

Elbrus and Kilimanjaro the same year

Elbrus followed in August 2025, and Kilimanjaro in December. Union Bank of India funded the Kilimanjaro climb as well, with technical support from the expedition company Boots & Crampons. The team went up the Lemosho route and met heavy snow, freezing temperatures and poor visibility. That made this climb far harder than Kilimanjaro's reputation as a trekking peak suggests.

The four still to come

What remains is Aconcagua, Denali, Vinson and Carstensz Pyramid. Those four ask for far more than the first three: a long, cold expedition on Aconcagua, sled-hauling and glacier travel on Denali, and the logistics of Antarctica for Vinson. Carstensz is a rock climb at altitude, with access that has its own rules. Angmo has said she is looking for partners and funding to take them on from 2026.

Climbers working through the list are followed on the finishers in progress page. The guides for each of those four peaks explain what a climb involves, from permits to the weather windows.

This story is part of This week on the 7 summits: 19–25 October 2026, the week's news in brief.