New Delhi, May 31 (IANS) Indian mountaineer Shradha Gupta has successfully summited Mount Everest (8,849 metres) — the highest point on Earth — completing one of the most demanding achievements in high-altitude climbing. The ascent was undertaken with Elite Expeditions, the company founded by record-breaking mountaineer Nirmal Purja.

The summit marks the most significant milestone yet in Gupta’s rapidly rising mountaineering career, which has taken her from recreational hiking in Dubai to the summit of the world’s highest mountain in just three years.

Gupta’s Everest ascent follows her historic summit of Mount Manaslu (8,163 metres) — the world’s eighth-highest mountain — on September 26, 2025. That climb marked her entry into the elite world of 8,000-metre mountaineering and established her as one of India’s emerging names in endurance climbing.

Everest, standing at 8,849 metres above sea level in the Himalayas on the Nepal-Tibet border, is the ultimate objective for high-altitude mountaineers worldwide. The summit sits deep in what climbers call the ‘death zone’ — the altitude above 8,000 metres where oxygen levels fall to a third of those at sea level, and the human body begins to deteriorate faster than it can recover.

Before her Himalayan expeditions, Gupta had already completed three of the famed Seven Summits — the highest peaks on each continent. She summited Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 metres) in Africa, Mount Elbrus (5,642 metres) in Europe, and Aconcagua (6,961 metres) in South America, in addition to completing the trek to Everest Base Camp.

Her progression from the Seven Summits to the 8,000-metre peaks reflects a deliberate, disciplined approach to high-altitude mountaineering — building altitude experience, technical skill, and physiological acclimatisation step by step before taking on the world’s most demanding terrain.

What makes Gupta’s story particularly compelling is the trajectory. She entered high-altitude climbing only about three years ago, after rediscovering her passion for the outdoors following the pandemic. In that short span, she has moved from recreational hiking to standing on the highest point on Earth — a progression that takes most mountaineers a decade or more.

Gupta is a resident of Dubai and heads the Corporate business in the Middle East at DBS Bank, the Singapore-headquartered financial institution. She started her career in banking with DBS Bank in Singapore in 2006 after completing her engineering degree from the National University of Singapore.

Her mountaineering achievements have been pursued alongside a demanding senior leadership role in international banking — a duality that she embodies, and hopes will inspire others who believe transformational goals are only possible outside the pressures of professional life.

Her journey is also a story of resilience. Every high-altitude expedition demands months of preparation, physical conditioning, and mental fortitude — and Everest is in a category of its own. The mountain tests climbers not just physically but psychologically: the willingness to endure weeks of acclimatisation, extreme cold, technical hazard, and uncertainty before the narrow summit window opens.

–IANS

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