Summiting Mt. Everest With Dr. Murad Lala

Climbing a mountain is different from other sports. The only opponents that you face are the demons in your mind. The only goals that you can score are the limits you set for yourself whether it be the top of the summit or anywhere else, in between. There are no spectators to cheer you on and many a times it’s a lonely battle of you versus the elements and that is where your mental strength comes in,” explained Dr. Murad Lala, for whom summiting Mt. Everest had been a childhood dream.

In a special Club address for RCB, aptly titled, ‘From Scalpel to Summit – My Tryst with Mount Everest’, Dr. Lala regaled everyone present with his story of the summit and by the end of it, had all of us in awe and inspired with his experiences that triggered and motivated this remarkable feat. Currently sharing his expertise as a Cancer surgeon at Mumbai’s PD Hinduja National Hospital & Research Centre for the past fourteen years, Dr. Lala became the first Indian civilian doctor to summit Mount Everest on 19th May, 2013. He strongly believes in getting out of his comfort zone and pushing the envelope because limitations exist only in the human mind.

Surgical Oncologist, Dr. Murad Lala, has summited more than the mountainous field of medicine in life – he has summited Mt. Everest itself! “I had no formal training in mountaineering prior to this crazy dream of mine. I approached the Himalayan Mountain Federation and told them I wanted to train to summit the peak. They told me I was too old, that I had to be younger than forty years of age to do the basic or advanced mountaineering course with them. I was fifty then!

So I started scouting abroad and found this Canadian group called ‘Peak Freaks’ and they said if I wanted to climb with them, I must train with them. So I joined them in Nepal in 2012 and we summited three peaks together in the range of 20,000 feat. And it is while I climbed these peaks that I got to learn everything about mountaineering. And if you are successful at this, then they invite you to join them for the main summit. In order to prepare myself, I would train daily for an hour at a high-altitude gym in Juhu. Another part of my exercise was that I climb up and down the 16 floors at work.

I don’t use the lift.” Towards realizing his childhood dream of summiting Mount Everest, he completed the “Triple Crown Expedition” in October, (Cont’d from Page 1) 2012, in which he summited three 20,000 feet peaks around Mount Everest. An extreme-sports enthusiast, he has also been the recipient of the Prime Minister’s Medal at NCC and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Medal. “So what’s the romance about summiting Mt. Everest?” asked the extremesports enthusiast, Dr. Murad Lala. “It takes at least two months if you want to successfully summit it. It’s unlike climbing any other mountain where you simply start at the base and keep moving on up till you reach the top. It’s a very different game with Mt. Everest – it’s a waiting game.

Many days there’s not much you can do except sit in your tent waiting for the blizzards to blow over so you can continue your climb, comparatively safely again,” he explained as he went on to explain his awe-inspiring feat. An alumnus of The Lawrence School, Lovedale, with a belief in getting out of his comfort zone and pushing the envelope, Dr. Lala is an avid fan of extreme sports include flying, skydiving, bungeejumping, para-sailing, white water rafting and rally racing. He’s also secured a trophy in the Himalayan Car Rally and has been the recipient of the Prime Minister’s Gold Medal, representing India as part of the NCC India Contingent, in Singapore.

He continued, “There’s a very small summit window. Mt. Everest at 29000 feet, comes in the way of the jet streams – which are very strong winds that rage across the earth with speeds of over 200 kms per hour. There are only a few days in the year that these jet steams move April 19 to April 25, 2016 The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 5 Rotarians enrapt in the exciting summit story Rotarians have questions for Dr. Lala! Rtn. Mudit Jatia introduces Dr. Murad to the audience upwards and northwards towards China and that’s when you need to make your summit push, reach your summit and get back down again, before the jet streams reappear. It is risky.

Accidents and deaths are a reality on the mountains.” He took us through a very well made live documentary of him summiting Mt. Everest, introducing everyone to various terminologies, sharing exclusive footage of him and his team members climbing the mountain, all the way up to the summit and back. He provided details about how it takes a week just to reach the base camp from Lukla in Nepal, moving from 9000 feet to 17000 feet, on foot, making regular stops on the journey and taking it very slow in order to allow the body to acclimatize to the increasing drop in oxygen levels in the air at that height. “The dictum is that you will not ascend more than 1000 feet in a single day,” he emphasized. “Initially we crossed a lot of forest area and waterfalls, but as we go higher, it’s all just bare rock and ice. En route a visit is made to the abode of the highest spiritual leader of Nepal to take his blessings.

Before reaching the base camp, we arrived at Monument Hill and this is where our group leader sat us all down and told us, here on things get serious. All these stone piles that we see represent bodies of all those who died while attempting to summit Mt. Everest, so if you wish to turn back, this would be the time.” “Everest base camp is just a glacier and it’s only during climbing season that it is inhabitable. It was a unique experience to sleep on a glacier. Our helpers are the Sherpas and they guide us through the entire journey. Before you start the climb from base camp, a Tibetan monk, comes and does a special pooja seeking permission from Sagarmata, to step on to her, and only after this pooja are you allowed to start your climb.

The first destination from base camp is called Camp One. Once you reach here, you return to base camp. The next destination is Camp Two, ahead of Camp One, where this time, you spend the night at Camp One and next morning, proceed to Camp Two and then return to base camp again. And that is the practice we follow upto Camp Four, until we reach the summit, in order to acclimatize ourselves.” Taking us with him on his journey via captivating visuals and live video footage, it was indeed a thrilling visual adventure for us that afternoon, where Dr. Lala left one and all, awed and inspired with the strength of his will and his determination to summit the world’s tallest peak.