profession yet not in India and probably
not even in the world even
internationally mountaineering is a
sport that very few and only the top
Mountaineers actually get sponsored and
it works as a professional sport but for
most of us it’s a passion when I climbed
Everest in 2009 I had no clue what was
going to snowball from there and when I
got into it I’ve spent all my childhood
summers in the mountains and that’s
where the the affliction or the
connection to the mountains comes from
I’ve spent when I was nine years old was
the first high-altitude Trek to 4,700
meters which was go muck in on the Ganga
three glaciers and I think that it
became the part of the year that I
looked forward to the most ice played
from tennis karate swimming badminton
skating swimming dancing sink singing it
was like the whole plethora of things
that I did like once I got back from
school at one it would be all these
things that I did to him eight o’clock
and went off to bed by 8:30 and growing
up my mother didn’t put this pressure of
performing in school or in studies well
I still remember being beaten to pulp
and my karate fights
I still remember losing and antennas
owner and skating Zoners the only other
thing that I excelled at was dance but
that did not deter me at all the kids I
didn’t do it my mother never allowed me
to feel bad or even know that Oh
you’re doing this sport you have to win
it at least as a child that was not what
I was growing up for she knew that
everything that she was putting me
through that she was making me do was
somehow going to add to the character
worth to the personality that I was
going to be and so when I got into
mountaineering I had no knowledge or
interest about how to climb Everest or
what happens on Everest I did my first
mountaineering course when I was 16
actually just keep going ahead on the
pictures did that cause I was completely
hooked up until then upon 18 I wanted to
anything I knew that and so once I
finished my 12th standard I had I don’t
go to any college so of course I done I
and in these eight years one of the
things that I realized as a Mountaineer
is that you have to make it sustainable
you’re a Management Institute you’re all
about business and to bring something
that is not business to a working
business model as one of the toughest
things that you can do works on how
you’re going to make this profession
sustainable I’m gonna become Porter are
you gonna become a guide I’m going to
open a tracking agency how are you going
to make money out of being a mountaineer
because apparently that’s where it all
boils down to but even as a mountaineer
I hope that mountaineering comes to a
stage where it is a sustainable spot
where it is like cricket or badminton or
Kabaddi or soccer today and it takes a
long journey for that to happen so
sports in India in itself is a difficult
area to be in whichever sport that you
see in India has a story behind it of
how it has developed a business model
and that becomes really really difficult
to think about in mountaineering we need
Everest was alone 30 lakhs declined this
and I was 19 years old I went to every
FMCG company everyone how can I make
this sustainable how can I get a company
to pay 30 lakhs or 50 lakhs for an
expedition where it has no eyeballs and
where how do I justify 50 lakhs and
that’s where I have to be a mountaineer
again it’s not it’s no more about just
getting to the top
it never was really but now it’s all its
I have to create an entire environment
to make sure that what I am doing
thrives you can be a snowflake but it
also
matters how big a ball you create at the
end of it because every each and every
one of us is unique each and every sport
is unique like even as Mountaineers with
a very small group of people in India or
in the world compared to the rest of
sports but how we catapult that into
something that actually becomes viable
and and can contribute to business to
advertising to marketing to actually
being in the ecosystem rather than
outside it and say oh I I want to get
there and so even as a Mountaineer I go
through these journeys first is a the
tallest peak in the world and it was
only the second mountain that I climbed
to be very honest I was not scared at
all not even for a second I didn’t doubt
myself even for a second and it wasn’t
like I was confident about reaching the
summit
I wasn’t that that’s not the point but
it never crossed my mind
that’s how focused I was on trying to
climb the mountain and I don’t know how
and when but it was always about being
able to be on that expedition being
given an opportunity to climb to the
highest point you have to enjoy the
journey the destination is seriously
immaterial I was at the summit this is
my team and for my entire team the
Everest was their last seventh summit
set out of eight of us four of us
reached the summit and two of us were
extremely serious medical conditions and
had to be lifted out one of our shared
past died mountaineering is is also one
of the sports that requires all our
faculties to be present when I actually
got into it when I wrote my ten standard
maths paper I swore I would never do
maths in my life
again like but my god into
mountaineering I was one of the first
thing that I had to do was geometry and
mats and it was so very difficult
especially at high altitude when your
brains not really working now I do
pseudo qu up there just because I have
to keep my mind life but mountaineering
expects us to know geography weather
geology how today’s weather is going to
affect the snow that is there in layers
at various points and where it could
trigger off an avalanche I didn’t even
know you couldn’t measure such thing
when I got into it we have to know
biology we have to know psychology we
have to know logistical planning in
terms of how our rations are divided and
taken up the mountain or taken down the
mountain we’re supposed to know medical
first-aid we’re supposed to know
it actually ties everything down from
how to cook and to make sure that
scientifically your stove is correct
because at 7,000 meters or 8,000 meters
when you’re trying to make chai it takes
about an hour or so mountaineering is
also the thing that sort of allowed me
to realize that that I am capable of
sticking to the things that I’ve learnt
as a child and just be one of the main
things that I am currently doing as a
Mountaineer is to make sure that
mountaineering becomes socially relevant
I want everyone to know what we do right
now we live in an India where most
people think Everest is India in India
so when we climb we do something called
rotations which is to acclimatize our
body to the height that we’re at
we have to make sure that our body knows
how to deal with it so once we reach
base camp we go to camp one we put our
luggage there we put our rations there
we set up tent we probably make chai
drink it and come back down
the next day we will go again to camp
one we’ll stay the night we’ll go to
camp two will open route to camp to dump
our stuff at camp to put up tent then
stay the night there come back down
rest for two-three days again got it
there’s a lot of planning in terms of
which equipment goes where how it will
survive there if it’s food will it
exists by the time you go there everest
is also considered like we always use
that phrase if it’s the toughest thing
to do in your life it is always what’s
your Everest or have you still managed
to find your Everest and I think
climbing does that in a lot of ways for
at least for me and that is to allow me
to push that boundary no matter what it
is only stepping out of your comfort
zone coming back in if that’s necessary
but that allows you to push that circle
further and further away and that’s
exactly what I am trying to do and I
think we’ll continue to do margin
earring is also one of the only reasons
that has brought me so close to
realizing what we do as a generation
I’ve seen glaciers melt in my lifetime
which is ridiculously upsetting for me I
was 9 when I’d first seen the go MOOC
they can go 3 glacier and I was 18 when
I saw it next and it had actually a
different level it was 800 meters
further a walk then it used to be 800
meters is a lot this was at camp summit
camp
sorry of South Summit which is 8,500
meters and I reach there about 5:30 and
the Sun was still to come out it was on
my right side way down the clouds the
clouds that you see are at 4000 meters
and I’m at 8500 so they’re literally
half the height that I am at and on the
left I suddenly saw this shadow and I
mean this is five minutes into when the
shadow first appeared but the shadow is
actually above the horizon on my left
and it was as if I stood in the middle
of time because there was one half of
the earth that was completely lit up I
mean the clouds were golden and the
light was coming out of it and it was
spectacular was the tibetan plateau on
my right and on my left was this massive
shadow that that that almost covered the
rest of the world I mean of course on
the sides there was light but and at
that point I also felt that this is
where we’ve reached as a civilization
today you know we technology and
internet and connectivity and trade and
development and agriculture has brought
us to eight thousand five hundred meters
we are very very high right now
extremely high we can see the summit we
can see our future we can almost grab it
but what we have climbed on has created
a massive shadow on on half of the world
which we cannot see and as business
entrepreneurs as just citizens we all
need to think about environment more
than anything else in the world there is
this amazing sea of opportunities as to
how far we can go all the
space but there is some weather we need
to check ourselves as humans to actually
know which direction we want to go
because we now stand at a point where we
can look in both directions we can look
at the amazing possibilities and we can
look at what we have destructed and we
can change that and it is up to all of
us to take that decision to make sure
that we do those small things whatever
it is if it’s not using bottled water
not drinking beverages or not using a
two wheeler or not buying a car all your
life whatever small thing that you can
do for the environment around you do it
because it is very easily too late and
finally I think reaching the summit the
most the biggest lesson that I had from
reaching the summit was the one that
thought that was prevalent in my head
once I actually reached the summit was
what am I thinking because I had no clue
what I’m thinking
I was completely blank there was not a
thought left in my head because I had
finished them all by the time I reached
us to reach the summit and so at the
summit I kept saying to myself what am I
thinking because I knew someone that I
had to answer this question all my life
what were you thinking when you were
right on top of the summit and honestly
nothing you know and it’s it’s not
nothing also it is a feeling of
completeness without actually being
complete because I had to come back down
and it’s the toughest journey downwards
so how
how much ever work you put into getting
to that destination that you need if you
haven’t enjoyed the way there you
probably not know the entirety of it so
please enjoy the journeys become the
snowflakes that you’ll want to be and
try and gather as much as snow on your
way because that’s the only way to keep
coming down actually thank you [Applause]