'I wanted to dance on the Everest'

"I was very proud to be on the tallest point of the earth," this was how Krushnaa Patil described her feelings after becoming the youngest Indian women to scale the Mount Everest.

Patil, 19, a first year student from Pune, achieved the feat on May 21 as part of the Eco Everest Expedition 2009. "I felt like dancing on the Everest, but I didn't," said Patil.

Asked about her best moment during the Everest expedition, she recalled that she felt most excited when she was on the Hillary step on the way to the peak. She was was stuck on a big rock with her two feet on two sides of the rock and just next to her was 20,000 feet steep slope!

Replying to a question, she said she wants to carry the message of the impact of climate change and environmental awareness back to India.

"I want to spread the message of the melting glaciers in the Himalayas and the garbage being dumped in the region," Patil told PTI.

Due to climate change, the melting glaciers have been threatening the fragile mountains and this has been a matter of worldwide concern.