Chomolungma may mean “the divine mother of the world” in Tibetan, but her ways are tough and treacherous. Only those with a passion that surpasses every human weakness can hope to find their way through her.
Knowing her is a journey into the power of human will — how it towers over every obstacle to push those with fire in their hearts to the top of the world’s highest peak: Chomolungma, aka Mount Everest.
It was a discovery of this inner power for Sreesha Raveendran too, who has become the second Keralite woman to summit Everest. She vividly remembers the world from the top as sheer magic.
“An experience that made every struggle worthwhile,” she gushes.
“It was all a sheet of undulating snow, with some landmark peaks visible in the visual melee. The wind was howling at a high, making it impossible for me to watch the spectacle. My goggles were covered with snow. The wind was that strong, bone-chilling. I removed the goggles, and immediately my left eye was blinded. Yet, I mentally devoured the beauty of all that was before me, stayed at the summit to hoist the Tricolour, and to melt into the nothingness I felt on top.”
Just moments before, at Hillary’s Step, where many climbers give up and turn back out of sheer exhaustion, she was on the verge of passing out, with oxygen weighing her down and her body beginning to shut down.
“Past the death zone (8,000ft), my body felt literally non-existent. My bowel movement had stopped, I didn’t feel hungry. All I had were energy bars. All that I could bodily feel was menstrual bleeding, as I had my periods the second day into the trek. There were some dead bodies of climbers around. No one would come for them because taking them back would cost a fortune,” says Sreesha.
“The Sherpa who accompanied me was a seasoned guy. He egged me on to move, assuring that nothing would happen to me as long as he was there. I trusted his words and, above all, the inner voice urging me to reach the top.”
At the summit, too, she saw bodies frozen in time. “But the will in me was strong to make it back safe. I wanted to be back to share my story with my loved ones,” Sreesha recalls.
The descent was harsher than the climb. She could feel a sense of her vitals only on reaching Camp Two. She passed out on arrival, and was airlifted to Kathmandu for frostbite and ‘khumbu cough’ (high-altitude cough) treatment.
Sreesha was part of a team of eight managed by the climbing company Boots and Crampons, in collaboration with Pioneer, a Nepal-based climbing agency. Of them, four — including her — summited Everest on May 20, just days after another Malayali woman, Safrina Latheef, had marked her own milestone on the peak.
When TNIE got in touch with Sreesha, she was at a hospital in Bengaluru, where she works as a financial consultant. She is also the mother of a 12-year-old Taekwondo athlete.
“It was my son who told me to go for the Everest climb,” she says.
“I was reluctant, as it would need a sponsor. The climbs are quite costly. Also, it would keep me away for a month. But my son pushed me. He said it could be a highlight for me. His words gave me a lot of assurance.”
Her son and husband, Jayakumar, have accompanied her on some of her earlier Himalayan treks. Sreesha’s love for the mountains began as a 15-year-old school student in Kochi, when her father took her on the Great Lakes trek in the Himalayas.
“He was an avid traveller. Probably that influence made me fall in love with the mountains. I must say mountains make me feel like myself. Mountains have that trait; they bring out the raw ‘you’ from within you. No filter there. Just you and the mountains.”
So far, Sreesha has trekked 15 Himalayan peaks, including Pin Parvati, KY2, Khalindi Khal, Friendship Peak, Dzo Jongo, and Stok Kangri.
“There is a regime I followed to remain fit for mountaineering. The groups have training sessions, which also equip us. Other than that, I train every day for my trips, which I do at least twice a year,” she says, explaining how she splits time between her roles as a career woman, a family woman, and a passionate climber.
Bharatanatyam, too, features in her life — an artform she’s now pursuing a postgraduate degree in. But it’s the mountains that feed her spirit.
“I had once felt it as I travelled in the Kalindi Khal area in Uttarakhand. There was a silence in the air that was full of a spiritual fervour. Something indecipherable,” Sreesha adds.
“I am not a greatly spiritual person, but I could feel something that comforted, energised me. I believe it is this energy that remains in one as a resolve that is tested during arduous climbs. It really steels one’s grit, trains one’s focus to be one-pointed even as the body shuts down in harsh weather. Mountains do care. They teach — to never give up.”
The treacherous heights make her feel at home, she concludes as she rushes to respond to the doctor’s call at the hospital, where she’s receiving treatment for grade 2 frostbite.