Mumbai: City mountaineer revisits near-death experience in the Everest

Among all the stories of deaths traffic jams and gloom on Mount Everest this climbing season is also a story of victory Mumbais Parth Upadhyaya 24 who gave up his aviation maintenance engineering job offer to accomplish his lifelong dream reached the Everest summit on May 23While Upadhyaya had a successful expedition he also witnessed horrifying deaths in the process along with the maddening rush of people from across the world wanting to reach the summit Despite all odds and uncertainties that stared him in the face the Mahim resident returned home last week making his parents ndash businessman father Pratik 54 mother Dipal 50 and brother Arya 19 proud of his featAlso read Traffic jam on Everest 2 more dieUpadhyaya had nine years ago also read a news report about a 16yearold boy from Noida climbing the Everest This inspired the then 15yearold A BSc aircraft maintenance engineering graduate Upadhyaya is employed as a trek leader with a Mumbaibased adventure company He began trekking in 2010 with a dream of climbing Everest someday He completed a basic mountaineering course at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in UttarakhandIt was the worst seasonUnlike every year this year the Nepal government had issued more than three times the permits 150 to 200 per year it usually does This year the numbers stood at 700 to 800 permits with USD 11000 per permit China though kept the permits to the same 300 said Upadhyaya Another reason for crowding on the Everest this season was due to the smaller window of good weather Usually people get a window of seven to eight days of good weather for the summit but this season the weather was very bad and we got only two days Maximum climbers thus had to reach the summit in this period and it also witnessed maximum causality said UpadhyayaAlso readKami Rita Sherpa scales Mount Everest for record 23rd timeHis view from the Everest summitMission Everest beginsAlmost a year ago Upadhyaya had decided that he will be climbing Mount Everest in 2019 and thus began preparations To be a mountaineer you need to stay close to the mountains he believed and thus rented a house in Karjats Bhivpuri village His daily routine would include waking up at 330 am practising pranayama and breathing exercises and trek towards Matheran hills with a bag pack weighing 25 kg containing water jugs and stones The trek would take up four to five hours of his day and he would use the rest of the day approaching corporates and business houses for crowdfunding his expedition as the Everest summit needed around R45 to R50 lakh including permits and travel costsAt the peakThe expedition began on April 8 with a team of eight mountaineers driving from Kathmandu and reaching the Everest Base Camp 17300 feet in Tibet on April 16 The next month was spent setting up higher camps load ferrying and acclimatisation to higher altitudes by doing multiple rotations up and down the mountain Upadhyaya left for the summit from Camp III at 8 pm on May 22 and made it at the top on May 23Upadhyaya with his Nepali sherpa Sunaru on their way to the peakWhen I reached the top the sun had just risen above the horizon and in the West I could see the shadow of Mount Everest spread across the earth till the horizon The sun was rising below my feet and for that moment I was at the highest place in the world The nineyearlong journey and a dream had come true and it was the most magical moment of my life he exclaimedAlso readNepali sherpa scales Everest for 23rd time creates world recordWhat nextUpadhyaya is now keen on climbing 13 peaks which are at a height of over 26000 feet in India Nepal Pakistan Tibet etc The world of outdoors has changed my life significantly Nature has the power to develop your personality in a very dynamic way he concludedUpadhyaya achieved the feat on May 2315 minsTime Upadhyaya spent at the peakMay 23Day he reached the peak of Mt Everest29035 ftHeight of Mount Everest13No of frozen bodies of climbers Upadhyaya encountered on his way50No of people who had to be hospitalised this seasonRs 4550 lakhCost of Upadhyayas expeditionCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates