Kathmandu, Mar 24 (IANS): For a person who had her first glimpse of a mountain in a poster when she was 18 years old, physical education teacher Mamata Sodah has come a long way. She is now set to scale Mt Everest, the highest peak in the world.

Sodah, now 30, who teaches at the Shaheed Baba Deep Singh College of Education in Haryana, arrived in Kathmandu Wednesday to train for the Eco Everest Expedition 2010.

The expedition is being led by the living legend of mountaineering, Apa Sherpa, who will be aiming at his 20th summitting of the 8,848m peak this climbing season.

"I am excited and going crazy as well," Mamata told IANS ahead of the expedition's departure for the Everest base camp. "I have one mantra, to tackle things as they come."

The eldest of five siblings and the daughter of a state food and supplies inspector, who passed away nearly five years ago, this will be Mamata's first major expedition abroad.

In the past, she has climbed peaks in Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal in India.

"I had my first glimpse of a mountain when I was 18," Mamata said. "It was in a poster and I was amazed that there were places like that. Then I went to Vaishno Devi and saw my first mountain. They became my first love."

Before the expedition started, Mamata met her first challenge when she had to raise funds for the expensive adventure sport.

"I received overwhelming help," she says. "Chief Minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda allocated Rs.300,000 while other state bureaucrats and corporate organisations also helped raise the required Rs.2.1 million."

She also received priceless encouragement from her mother Mewa Devi and India's Everest icons Bachendri Pal and Santosh Yadav.

Pal, the first Indian woman to scale the peak, had invited Indian women climbers to Nagpur last month while Yadav, who has scaled Mt Everest twice, called up Mamata to wish her success.

"They told me that today, all fields are open to women. Women don't lag behind anywhere," Mamata said.

Apart from Mamata, three more Indians are expected to take part in the expedition that will also clean up the upper slopes of the mountain and bring down part of the garbage and human waste left behind by earlier climbers.

They are Arjun Vajpayee, who at 16 is hoping to become the youngest Indian Everest hero, Ashok Vardhan from New Delhi and Bhagyashree Sawant from Maharashtra.

Bhagyashree is 18-years-old. Last year, Krushnaa Patil, 18, climbed Mt Everest with Eco Everest 2009 and became the youngest Indian to achieve the feat.