Everest Twin Sisters Conquer Alps In Women-Only Peak Challenge

Tashi and Nungshi Malik, known as " Everest Twins", represented India in Switzerland's "100% Women Peak Challenge".

The Women Peak challenge was launched on International Women's Day as part of the women-only campaign. The campaign's main aim was to encourage only women-only teams to come together and conquer all the forty-eight 13,000 peaks in the Swiss Alps. The Twin sisters submitted 4,000 m ( 13,000 ft ) peaks in the Swiss Alps. The Malik twins successfully climbed Mount Allalinhorn (13,212 ft) and Breithorn (13,662 ft).

'Alps Did Not Disappoint Us'

" We are extremely grateful to be here in this beautiful country. We are thankful to Switzerland for inviting us and gave us a chance to represent India and Indian women in this peak challenge. We both have always dreamt of climbing peaks in the Swiss Alps, we had heard a lot about the Alps from our peers, and the Alps did not disappoint us! Both the peaks which we climbed were situated in the care-free town of Switzerland - Zermatt. At the top of Allalinhorn, the weather was extremely windy, and the temperature dropped to -5 degrees Celsius. The mountain peaks had many cracks to negotiate in the starting and exposed rock to climb towards the summit and were more technical than Breithorn," Nungshi Malik said as reported by NDTV.

Around 400 females from across the globe took part in this peak challenge. Seasoned mountaineers and women who had never climbed a 4,000-meter peak before were part of this challenge.

Encourage More Women For Mountaineering

"Inviting Twin sisters for this peak challenge was an opportunity to connect with global travellers, especially women mountaineers, bring them all together at one place in Switzerland beautiful landscapes. On Mount Breithorn, the Twins were also accompanied by two more female climbers who were not professional. We hope India's representation in this challenge will motivate more Indian women by participating in mountain biking, climbing, camping and high-altitude hikes. Because we believe females can do anything, they can also climb any mountain peak, in the world or her life," said Ritu Sharma, Deputy Director of Switzerland Tourism.

Everest twins first time also attempted multi-pitch ascent on Riffelhorn, which is at an elevation of 9,603 ft. The slippery rock, steep bolted routes and exposed sections pose different challenges and give the peak a climbing grade of 4A. Apart from the climbing work, the twin sisters also get involved in fun activities like gliding across the dragon slider, jet-boating in Interlaken and visiting the Swiss Museum for Transport in Lucerne.

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