Nisha Sasikumar often envisioned conquering the summit of Mount Everest. Picturing herself carrying a backpack, dressed in layers, managing climbing gear in both arms, and balancing the weight of essentials and an oxygen cylinder on her shoulders became a ritual.
Holding on to those scenes as tightly as she held on to our national flag, her school flag, and a Harry Potter toy while climbing the mountain, Nisha found herself standing on the top of the peak on May 25. Achieving this at the age of 16 years and 80 days, she became the youngest woman in the world to summit Mount Everest, the 8,848.86-metre peak, via the South Col route from Nepal — the only route open for climbing currently. Nisha admits, “All the visualisation I did about reaching the summit has come true. I always visualised walking the Hillary Step and reaching the summit. When I physically did that, I realised the power of visualisation.”
Growing up in a coastal city, Nisha took up mountaineering after her father — her major source of support — started climbing mountains out of interest.
Small piece of large dream
Nisha’s Everest expedition was 40 days long beginning on a clear spring day, April 15, with her arrival at Lukla from Kathmandu. The first eight days involved a trek to Everest Base Camp, followed by extensive acclimatisation, technical training, and rotational climbs through the Khumbu Icefall to Camp 1, Camp 2, and Camp 3 before the summit push. She was supported throughout the climb by Sherpa guides Tenji Sherpa, Phura Dorji Sherpa, and Phursang Sherpa.
The final summit push was about six days of continuous ascent, beginning on May 19, and three days of descent. Her achievement is part of her ongoing mission to complete the prestigious Seven Summits challenge — climbing the highest peaks across all seven continents. Working towards this goal, over the past year, Nisha has successfully summited Mount Elbrus, Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Kosciuszko, Carstensz Pyramid, Aconcagua, and now Everest. In October 2025, she was also recognised by the India Book of Records as the youngest female to summit Carstensz Pyramid — her favourite climb because of the technical climbing skill it demanded.
Day one for one day
“I’ve been climbing since December 2024. The training has been nonstop since then,” shares Nisha. The preparation for Everest turned rigorous in January 2026 with two hours at the gym every day, sometimes extending to four hours, where she worked on a mix of activities and workouts such as acquiring ascending skills, wrapping down, traversing, ice climbing, among others. She also travelled to Bengaluru for rock-climbing exercises.
But Nisha “never evaluated” if she was ready for Everest. “I was confident and I always visualised myself going up the Hillary Step and touching the summit. I was ready to have fun because, to me, the higher the mountain, the more happiness it gives because you spend more days climbing with the people that you love, you meet new people, new connections, new friends,” shares Nisha.
Nisha looked forward to the expedition. But when the mighty mountain stood before her, the challenges soon emerged. First, she tore her hamstring. “I had to come down to Kathmandu to get it fixed, and I returned for rotation. Then, my dad had to get back to the city due to a medical emergency and he couldn’t continue the climb. So, I had to go for the summit push alone. The thought of my friends and family being proud of me reaching the summit kept me going,” Nisha says.
A lot of night climbing was involved, too. “I found it intimidating since there's no light, and it's very cold, you have to bear up. It physically challenges you more.” On the contrary, the route from camp one to 2 was sunny. “But, when the sun rises, it gets really hot and you have to drink a lot of water, so you have to carry more water with you,” she adds. “This journey was part of a larger mission — of finding herself. The achievements eventually became about the records. “But now it’s more about telling people that if I can do it, you can do it as well,” she says.
Long way ahead
Nisha wants to break the stereotype that mountaineering is a male sport. She says, “Women have more endurance. And during the summit push, comparatively, women have more success rate than men do. Just knowing that might help all the other girls climb more,” she says. While this is a lesson she preaches, the takeaway from her last expedition is to be kind. “Whenever I see Sherpas or anyone walking past, I wave or smile, because that small action would make both our days better,” she notes.
Now, she quietly plans to make her days even more better by reaching Alaska as you read this, on to her next trek to Denali this month and Vinson Massif in November 2026 as she continues her Seven Summits journey. “I want to do the seven summits before I turn 17,” concludes Nisha.