India’s famous mountaineering twin sisters Tashi Malik and Nungshi Malik, popularly known as the ‘Everest Twins’, have represented India in the ‘100% Women Peak Challenge’ of Switzerland.
As a part of the challenge, the Malik twins summited two 4000m (13,000 ft) peaks in the Swiss Alps and successfully completed it. As a part of the 100% Women Only campaign, the challenge was launched on International Women’s Day this year, aimed to encourage women-only teams to come together to ascend all the forty-eight – 13,000ft peaks in the Swiss Alps. The twins had successfully conquered Mount Breithorn (13,662 ft) and Allalinhorn (13,212 ft).
In a statement Nungshi said they’re thankful that Switzerland invited them to represent India and Indian women in the peak challenge. She added that they’ve have always dreamt of scaling the Swiss Alps and the peaks they scaled were in the car free town of Zermatt. At the top of Allalinhorn, the weather was extremely windy at the top, and the temperatures dropped to minus 5 deg Celsius. “The mountain had lots of crevasses to negotiate in the beginning and exposed rock to climb towards the summit and was more technical than Breithorn,” she said.
Tashi Malik further stated that it was their first experience in the Swiss Alps, and the terrain was so different from especially the Himalayas. She said that they’ve always encourage women looking to step out of their comfort zones and try their hand at mountaineering, to visit Switzerland and scale these peaks. “The sheer beauty of the Alps and joy of reaching the summit will inspire you to continue and become a seasonal mountaineer,” she said.
More than 400 women worldwide had taken part in this challenge, including both seasoned mountaineers along with women who have never climbed a four-thousand-meter peak before.
Deputy Director of Switzerland Tourism Ritu Sharma said inviting the Malik twins to Switzerland for the Peak Challenge was an opportunity to connect global travellers, particularly women mountaineers, and bring them together to discover all that Switzerland offers in its diverse landscape. She further said that she truly believes there is no mountain a woman cannot scale, in the world or in her life.
