Mountaineer Madhusudhan Patidar's journey
Most of us dream of reaching the hills, touching the peak of the mountain and grabbing the sky with our hands...but how many of us are able to realise that dream? Sadly not many, but, Madhusudhan did that, yes you heard that right! He is the youngest boy to climb Mount Everest from the North Ridge of China and that too at the age of 21. Not only this, he is the first person in the world, who stayed at Mt.Kilimanjaro for 22 hours, but he also climbed Mt.Koarang 2, Mt.Koarang 3 and Mt. Stok Kangri. This young lad from Indore, who is rooted in his passion is also on a mission to clean and climb 100 mountains, also qualified the Limca book record, well known as "Mowgli boy." We talked to this interesting and famous personality, about his journey, hurdles and passion among other things.
Talking about the the start of his journey Madhusudhan said," It all started when I was in class seventh and went on a trip with my father and by the end of that adventure I had fallen in love with the hills and my heart was set on climbing the Mighty Everest. After which I enrolled for the basic course of Mountaineering from Jawaharlal Institute of Mountaineering and later did the advanced course from Himalayan Mountaineering Institute. I always wished to do something different as I mentioned in my TEDx speech, We all know that we have to die someday but the only thing that matters is how you want to die by living your life with a dream or by living your life with fear So this is the only thing that made me pack my bag and rush towards the dream and set record in my name".
When asked about the hurdles that he faced during the initial period specially related to finances, he told us how coming from a middle-class family with fewer means he had to sell his house and his mother's ornaments to arrange the amount of his expedition which was almost 35 lakh. He also borrowed some amount from his neighbour, family and friends.
Recalling about the difficulties and challenges faced during the expedition, Madhusudhan said , "the Northside climbing was tough as compared to the China side. There is an altitude difference and extreme temperature which makes it very tough for most experienced climbers. The team reached the base camp in April due to weather changes as well as to adjust to the extreme temperature. We had to do rotation five times before entering the death zone. These rotations happened between the base camp, advance camp, north pole camp 2 and camp 3 the rotation and the Summit was challenging. Though that four out of the seven members retreated from the summit. After Which I and my two other members from England reached the summit. I also had to remove a part of a finger due to frostbite. I also lost one of my team members to a gorge during the climb. Therefore, I learnt many things from this".
Once the expedition was successfully completed he felt elated," I named 21 May 2017 as a dream day" I was standing at the top of the world and was clueless on how to react to that fabulous view and the overwhelming experience. Everest made me more confident than ever. It made me realise that no height is higher than human will and passion. It has given me seeds of new dreams to dream and make them come true. I want to make my country proud of me. For the very first time, I saw the sun rising from the bottom of my feet and it took around 2 hours to reach my height. I could see the curvature of the earth from the top of the world. With this I also overcame fear, got to learn the essence of patience and acceptance during my journey. Though I got mental strength from this".
Informing us about his current missions Madhusudhan said," I am on a mission to clean and climb 100 mountains". Our team wished him luck for the mission and hope his journey inspires the youth of the country to follow their dreams and achieve great milestones!
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