Apropos the article “Race to the top” (July 2) by Indulekha Aravind, I led a successful expedition to Everest in 2005 from the North, a much tougher and certainly more challenging route than the South, which is called the “Yak” route. I had been mountaineering for over 25 years, and had climbed/led expeditions to 18 Himalayan peaks before I went to Everest. For me, climbing Everest was like a pilgrimage — a chance to follow in the footsteps of legends like George Mallory, Francis Younghusband and Noel Odell.
I think we need to differentiate between those who climb Everest for fame and those who climb it for the love of mountaineering. It’s sometimes quite pathetic to see how people with little or no knowledge of mountaineering climb Everest and claim to be “mountaineers”. When I was chairman of the Expeditions Committee at the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, I interviewed a lady who had climbed Everest and wanted to lead a rather technical peak of a modest height. I asked her to describe how she would plan the route. Obviously, she had no clue since she had short-roped to Everest.
Most mountaineers talk about their climbs only when you dig deep and show real interest. There are several such people in the country and many other far more interesting climbs than Everest to be written about.
Amit Chowdhury, on email
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