Age no bar: 49-year-old from Bengaluru basks in Everest glory

Bengaluru's 49-year-old Sunil Nataraj with his Nepali guide Tsering Pemba sherpa on top of the Mt Everest. Credit: Special arrangement

When a plane from Kathmandu for a mountain flight-seeing tour got cancelled due to bad weather in 2011, Sunil Nataraj — who was on a pilgrimage with family — decided to see the world by climbing the Mt Everest instead of getting a bird’s eye view of it.

'On May 15 this year, the 49-year-old from Bengaluru summited the world's highest peak. “I was told I was too old for admissions into mountaineering institutes in India as they have a cut-off age limit of 40,” Nataraj told DH. “That didn’t deter me," said the director of product marketing at Broadcom, who also reduced his weight from over 100 to 65 kg.

After he was rejected by Indian schools, Nataraj trained with Nepali institutes. “Maybe that’s why I got teary-eyed after reaching the summit. It was surreal.” The Rajarajeshwari Nagar resident is now one of the 30-35 civilians out of 511 Indians to have scaled the Everest (rest are from the armed forces funded by the government).

“High-altitude climbing is not just a dangerous sport but expensive too,” said Nataraj, who spent Rs 38 lakh to fulfil his dream.

“Finding sponsors is the biggest challenge. I hope to inspire people to take up mountaineering or support this lesser-known sport through my exploits,” said Nataraj.

For someone who played little sport, the preparation for the Everest expedition began in 2018 when Nataraj had to change his lifestyle completely. After all, the gruelling climb shows little mercy even to the fittest of human beings.

“I weighed 104 kg and led an unhealthy lifestyle,” he said. “Being over 40 years, I had to stick to a strict physical and mental regimen. Apart from following good diet, I began running 5-10 km every day and did weight training in the evenings. On the weekends, I cycled 200-300 km. By mid 2019, I came down to 65 kg,” he said.

He began high-altitude climbing only in 2021 with Lobuche East (6129 mts) being his first peak to summit. He had to abandon scaling Himlung Himal (7136 mts) at 7,000 mts due to a second-degree frostbite on the nose.

Nataraj was determined to go on the journey from Bengaluru-Delhi-Kathmandu-Lukla-Mt Everest and back, lasting 45 days with the help of his Nepali guide Tsering Pemba sherpa.

“We ascend to higher altitudes in a steady pace so there is enough time for the body and mind to get acclimatised to oppressive conditions. After taking 12-15 days to reach the Everest base camp from Kathmandu, we do something called ‘the rotation’. It involves climbing from camp one-two-three and back. I did this in six days,” said Nataraj.

Nataraj’s final summit push started from the base camp on May 12 at 2 am.

“We waited for the right weather window when the wind speed was minimal at 15-22 km/hr before leaving camp-4 at 8 pm on May 14. On most other days, it is 260-300 km/hr because of the peak’s proximity to the stratosphere. The climb to the top begins at night because without sunlight the snow doesn’t melt, that in turn reduces the risk of avalanches,” he explained.

A night’s rest each at camp 2 and 3 before traversing through the death zone starting from camp 4, he reached atop the mother of all mountains at 8 am on May 15.