At Everest God is near

On a blissful Monday in May 2005, the mission was accomplished after years of relentless effort through a manifestation of indomitable human will.

The successful female climbing champions proved that there is nothing that can withstand the power of human will and that race, cultural background, gender, and physical strength are no impediments for determined and disciplined people.

Our universe is made to be conquered. Anyone who decides to achieve something and puts his/her full efforts into it reaches their goal sooner or later, provided that the person is blessed with a burning desire to realize the cherished dream.

However, you must never give up until you scale the heights.

After twelve years of ceaseless struggle, Farkhondeh Sadegh’s dream finally came true on May 30, 2005, but sadly Leila Bahrami had to abort her mission because of severe oxygen deficiency, which ruptured blood vessels in her brain, leaving her unconscious and partially paralyzed. Later, in an interview, Sadegh said, “When you want to do something huge, sometimes you have to pay for it. Leila paid the price of it.”

In the “Old Man and the Sea” Ernest Hemingway wrote, “Man can be destroyed but not defeated.”

Physically, Bahrami was destroyed but spiritually she did not surrender. Her body was wrecked but her soul remained intact. In life, the struggle often becomes more important than the goal. The struggle has its own rewards and its own taste.

However, in the hour of glory, Sadegh was accompanied by Laleh Keshavarz, the youngest female ever to climb Mt. Everest. Together, they planted the Iranian flag on the 8,848-meter summit.

Climbing Everest is more of a science than a sport. One has to work hard for years and years to master the required mental and physical training. And before venturing on to climb peaks like Everest or K2, one has to scale small mountains and lesser peaks over and over again.

Climbing requires special techniques and equipment like thick rubber-soled boots or other special shoes, ropes, and steel spikes, known as pitons, which are driven into the rock as an aid to climbing. And for ice climbing, ice axes and attachable boot spikes known as crampons are used.

In addition, unlike many other major sports, mountaineering is fraught with peril. The major dangers are of two kinds: the danger of things falling on the mountaineer and the danger of the climber getting swallowed up by the valleys of death. Rocks, ice, and snow may fall on the mountaineer or the climber may fall from cliffs or into crevasses in ice or snow.    

Falling into a crevasse is usually a death sentence. In the lower part of a glacier, crevasses are open. Above the snow line, they are frequently hidden by arched-over accumulations of winter snow.

The worst dangers are due to bad weather, which causes changes in snow and rock conditions, making movement suddenly much more arduous and hazardous for climbers. In large snowfields it is easier to go wrong than on rocks. In order to conquer sky-high peaks one must learn to safely navigate all these hazards.   

Scaling Everest, the Iranian female climbers faced all these challenges and more: lack of oxygen, avalanches, the danger of falling in crevasses, and extremely bad weather. But they did fulfill the promise which Sadegh made while standing on the top of the neighboring Himalayan peak Mt. Pumori, “I will climb you.”

Keshavarz and Sadegh were the first Muslim women to conquer Everest. After successfully completing the grueling ten-week mission, they made all Muslim women proud. During the expedition, every day they faced new challenges and new hazards, set new targets and reached them. Every day they had to win to avoid losing.

When finally they scaled the vertical limits of the planet Earth and planted the Iranian tricolor on the peak of Mt. Everest, in a mystical ecstasy, Farkhondeh Sadegh spoke the immortal words: “At Everest God is near.”

GJ/HG

END

MNA