Mount Everest has long represented the ultimate human challenge. Twenty-two-year-old Saanika Shah, an endurance athlete, mountaineer and dancer from Mumbai, stood on top of the world after successfully summiting Mount Everest last month. What’s more, she performed a Bharatanatyam dance on her way to the summit.
She first set her sights on Everest at 17 and spent the next five years training relentlessly. But it was only when she actually climbed the mountain that she realised just how life-threatening the expedition could be.
Excerpts from the interview:
Everest represents the ultimate human challenge for many. You’ve already done it at 22 - what next?
Everest was always the goal. Because of Everest I started my journey into mountaineering. If it was not for Everest, maybe mountaineering would have never entered my life.
You literally manifested Everest when you were only 17, what inspired you?
It started during the lockdown in 2021. I watched this movie called Everest about the 1996 disaster on the mountain and I said to myself, ‘I think I want to climb Everest’. So over the past five years, each and every peak that I've climbed, or each and every training session, always had Everest as an end goal. In 2021 I decided that 2026 will be the year that I make Everest happen. I was obsessed. I used to order these pictures of Everest from Amazon, frame them and-hang them up in my room. I would wake up every morning seeing Everest. I’m beyond grateful to everyone in my life that supported me.
Everest is a deadly expedition. Many people die while sumitting. So why did you do it?
I was 17 back then, and for me, I had already been stuck in a kind of dreamland or a fantasy land where I had made Everest my everything. I felt that Everest would open doors for me in life. I had this ideology. Those five years, whatever I was doing, whether it's my academics or whether i was at a dance class, in the backdrop of my mind, I'm just looking at Everest and visualising myself climbing.
You performed Bharatnatyam at base camp, which is still 17,500ft. What was the motivation behind this?
So I am a trained dancer. Since I was just four years old my mom put me in bharatnatyam class. Eventually it became my base for my dance ahead. So I've always respected that dance form. It was my mother's idea that whenever i go to Everest, I should wear the traditional bharatnatyam costume and click pictures and strike a pose. Finally when the time for Everest came I thought, ‘why just pose or something. I'll do a dance’.
How was that experience?
I took my costume, I took my jewellery and makeup. I wanted to get fully ready, how I would back in the city. I also asked the team I went with for permission to dance. They said they were happy for me to perform on the puja ceremony day. So puja ceremony is done on the base camp before we start climbing on the mountain, just to ask for permission from the mountain, for a safe passage, and we do a puja of the equipments and the gears we use.
It was the most auspicious day on the expedition and I got to do my dance that day. When I was getting ready in my tent my hands become numb and I was shivering. Even at base camp you're still wearing a lot of clothes because it's cold and windy. I had to remove all my jackets, and thermals to wear a sari at minus 5 degrees.
But still I got ready and I felt so gorgeous on the mountain, with the look and with the sunlight. And then I danced. It was just a very beautiful moment.
It must have been physically exhausting?
I danced for a whole three minutes. Just to give you perspective. Even when you walk from your tent to the dining area, you're still getting breathless. I was out of breath dancing for three minutes but I was still holding my expressions and smiling. But after the dance, I just had to sit down and breathe for five-six minutes.
You summited Everest with the Elite Expedition group run by the famous Nepalese mountaineer Nirmal Purja or Nims Dai. The 14 peaks documentary on Netflix is about him. Is that one of the better groups to go with?
Yes, the core team was really good. On the mountain you are trusting the Sherpas with your life. And my Dai - Lakpa Tenjen Sherpa did a wonderful job. I would give all the credit to him for coming back home safe and alive.
At any point did you feel your life was in danger?
Yes there were so many points on the summit night where I was genuinely scared for my life. It was fear that I can't even explain. I remember I was on the Hillary step, looking at the 2000 meter drop on my right. And I thought, ‘man, one wrong step and you're gone’. We had to be so careful of each and every step, especially when you're so exhausted. And it's crazy how the body knows that it has to survive. So somehow you don't take the wrong step. It’s just the magic of the body and mind, and how they're coordinating together.
