I have read a lot of materials pertaining to mountain-climbing. And I have met a few legendary mountaineers myself. How I wish I had gone that route, making a career scaling the world’s meanest mountains.

The best I have done was climbing unnamed hills and slopes all over the country. And attempting (though not usually successful) to climb mountains in Indonesia, Britain and Pakistan.

I met Sir Edmund Hillary when he was in Malaysia in 1997. On May 29, 1953, he and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mt Everest. He was the icon invited by the Malaysian Government then to “bless” our “Everest Project 1997”.

The newspaper I edited at the time was one of the major supporters of the initiative. On May 23 that year, two Malaysian climbers – Mohandas Naggapan and Magendra Muniasamy – placed the Jalur Gemilang on the 8,848m Everest, the first Malaysians to do so.

May is the month of mountain madness. Climbers from all over the world descend on Nepal in an attempt to climb Everest and other peaks.

Nepal is home to the seven highest mountains on the planet and two others it shares with Tibet. Pakistan has five mountains above 8,000m, including K2, the second highest in the world. In all, there are 14 mountains whose height is more than 8,000m. In 2021, Nepal’s Tourism Department issued a record 409 permits for individuals to climb Everest.

At least 80 major expeditions and 500 climbers are already in Nepal at this time of the year. And there will be many stories of triumphs and despairs, so too deaths and injuries. As of July 2022, out of 6,098 people (in over 11,000 summit ascents) who have successfully summited Everest since 1953, at least 10% of the climbers have perished, some after successfully summited while others succumbed on the slopes while trying.

It was incredible that Hillary and Norgay could reach the summit of Everest 70 years ago. Very little was known about Everest back then. The climbing gear was primitive by today’s standard. But one thing was known at the time – it was humanly impossible for any human to survive the “Death Zone” (an altitude of 8,000m or 26,000ft) without the help of supplemental oxygen.

Until Reinhold Messner came into the picture. On the morning of May 8, 1978, he and his climbing partner Peter Habeler stood on Everest without using bottled oxygen. It was a feat even the great Hillary had doubts about. It shocked the climbing fraternity to the core. Messner had done the impossible!

Reinhold Messner made history as the first human to climb all 14 of the 8,000m peaks without oxygen. Photo: 123rf.com

Not only that, he made climbing history as the first human to have climbed all 14 of the 8,000m peaks without oxygen!It took him 16 years to achieve that. He conquered his first eight-thousander, Nanga Parbat (in Pakistan) on June 27, 1970. He stood on the last, Lhotse (on the Nepal-China border), on June 16, 1986.

If that is not incredible enough, he has climbed Everest three times, as well as Nanga Parbat, and Gasherbrum 1 and 2 (within the China-Pakistan border region) twice.

I met him in London during a talk in 1993. When asked how he felt after such a gargantuan accomplishment, he said, “I can’t even say 'Hooray, I have done it.' But rather, it's a joy of being alive at all, coupled with a feeling that now I am free to do other things.”

Many have tried to emulate Messner’s success. Among them Jerzy Kukuczka, a Polish climber who conquered three short of the target; Marcel Ruedi, a Swiss, succeeded to subdue 10; Michael Dacher, a German, eight; and Kurt Diemberger, an Austrian, six. Many died in the process. Perhaps it takes a special breed of climbers to be able to achieve that.

Messner had the reputation of being arrogant and aggressive, and portrayed as a publicity-seeker, and worse. But he knew what was expected of him to achieve something as incredible as that.

He has seen death, up close and personal. He lost his brother and his own six toes due to frostbite on Nanga Parbat. He has seen talented climbers succumb to the slopes or buckle under intense media security.

One needs more than the skills and the right mental attitude to survive the unpredictable weather, the treacherous slopes, and the maddening obsession to overcome adversity.

Now there is a new face of hardcore climbing: Nepal-born Nirmal "Nims" Purja, aka Nimsdai. He is dubbed the first celebrity mountaineer of the social media age. QC Sports agency came out with a feature about him entitled, “The Controversial King Of Hardcore Climbing”.

Nims Purja became world-famous in 2019 after scaling the world's 14 highest peaks in just six months and six days. Photo: Instagram@nimsdai

The indigenous mountain people of Nepal, the Sherpas, have been the unsung heroes of Himalayan climbing. More often than not, they were the “guides” entrusted to assist foreign climbers to achieve their goals. But they are legendary climbers in their own right.

Tenzing Norgay's son Jamling climbed Everest in 1996.

Both Jamling and Hillary’s son Peter summited the mountain in 2003 as part of an international expedition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their fathers' conquest.

Purja, 39, is of a different breed. This Gen X climber is a game-changer in high-attitude adventure. He became world-famous in 2019 after scaling the 14 eight-thousanders in just six months and six days!

Purja had joined the Gurkhas before becoming the first Nepali to be part of the Special Boat Service of the UK's Royal Navy, equivalent to the US Navy SEALs. He has written Beyond Possible and is featured in the popular Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible. He also owns a guiding company called Elite Exped which he started with his climbing partners Mingma David and Mingma Tenzi.

There are, of course, detractors. Legendary Polish mountaineer Krzysztof Wielicki was quoted as saying, “It’s more of a statistical achievement and that feat would not be written into the history of alpine climbing.” Probably, he had Messner in mind for comparison, despite taking 16 years to achieve that, he did it all without the help of fixed ropes or bottled oxygen.

What’s next? Surely the race for the fastest time to conquer all 14 eight-thousanders will get more intense.

Not wanting to be outdone was Kristin Harila, 36, from Norway who tried to break Nims’ record. She had climbed six of the world’s highest peaks in just 29 days. By late September 2021, she had conquered 12 peaks. By then, she had outpaced Nims.

Unfortunately, the Chinese government did not give her a permit to climb the last two: Shishapangma and Cho Oyu. Interestingly, she hadn’t climbed a single 8,000m peak prior to that!

Johan Jaaffar is an avid trekker and occasional climber. He has been to Indonesia, India, China and Europe for his adventures.