After a collection of setbacks, Parbati Joshi defied the chances to develop into the primary feminine Intrepid chief to summit the world’s tallest peak. That is her story.
Few locations seize the creativeness of adrenaline seekers, endurance athletes and adventurers fairly just like the world’s tallest mountain. Rising up within the small Himalayan village of Goljungbesi, surrounded by the white-capped peaks and rolling hills of the distant Nepalese district of Rasuwa, Parbati Joshi shared their fascination with the summits.
At college, she examine Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, the primary Nepali girl to summit Everest, and imagined ‘how cool it will be to face on prime of the world.’ However on the time, it felt like an not possible dream.
It was solely after highschool, when Parbati moved to Kathmandu, that she found trekking. ‘I realised it might be extra than simply journey – it might be a occupation,’ she says. However breaking into tourism wasn’t straightforward. Coming from a village the place Nepali isn’t spoken fluently, Parbati quickly discovered that language expertise had been certainly one of her greatest obstacles.
There was additionally stress from relations to get married – a reminder of the standard roles anticipated of ladies in Nepal. Whereas guiding was a profitable profession, it was nonetheless extensively considered males’s work. ‘Even after greater than a decade on this subject, that stigma hasn’t gone away,’ she says.
Following within the footsteps of a childhood hero
By 2012, Parbati had began to search out her footing within the mountains. By likelihood, whereas participating in a wilderness first-responder course, Parbati met two native Intrepid leaders working in Nepal who inspired her to affix them.
In the course of the course, she learnt extra about how they information 1000’s of climbers on treks to Everest Base Camp (EBC) for a glimpse of the principle peak. ‘Nevertheless, Intrepid is a world firm, they lead [people from all over the world],’ she explains. ‘My English was so poor [at the time]. I didn’t really feel succesful but.’
With a purpose to enhance her language expertise and nurture a ardour for guiding, Parbati first joined an area journey firm as an intern and later as a porter. She additionally educated in climbing, biking and First Assist, typically stepping in as a responder.
In 2016, Parbati lastly joined Intrepid as an assistant mountain information, accompanying travellers on the Annapurna Circuit, Langtang Valley and Everest Base Camp.
For Base Camp trekkers, the journey ends on the foot of the Khumbu Icefall, a 600-metre vertical maze of collapsing towers and hidden chasms, echoing with the groans of shifting ice. However for these with the summit of their sights, it’s the treacherous launch pad in the direction of their last ascent.
Intrepid travellers would typically ask her if she was ever planning on doing the summit. ‘That was when the spark [to climb Everest] first got here to me… I might repeatedly say: “at some point I’ll”.’
Learn extra: The feminine chief difficult gender norms in Nepal
Overcoming the sudden
Parbati had all the time deliberate to develop into a mountain chief with superior high-altitude coaching, however in 2017, she needed to endure sudden surgical procedure.
Compelled to pause, she watched her friends transfer ahead. It was not solely a bodily setback, however a monetary one too, with the surgical procedure costing her the cash she’d saved up for her dreamed-of Everest expedition. ‘I cried quite a bit, however I additionally made myself a promise that at some point, I’d be up there too.’
After recovering from surgical procedure, Parbati rebuilt her energy by specializing in indoor climbing and mountaineering. ‘Whereas restoration was difficult, it made me extra decided.’
By 2019, she was prepared for a sophisticated mountaineering course, however the pandemic quickly put her Everest dream on maintain once more. As tourism floor to a halt, she returned to her village and spent ten months along with her mother and father, wrestling with doubt over whether or not the mountains had been the fitting place for her to work.
However the pull of the peaks by no means let her go. For Parbati, the Himalayas are greater than a office. They’re a part of who she is. Quickly, she was again on the paths and main journeys by means of the excessive Himalayas, feeling her power and function return.
‘On the finish of October 2024, I used to be main the Girls’s Expedition by means of Ghorepani Ghandruk, Pokhara and Chitwan Nationwide Park. We had been sitting as a bunch, [as it so often happens], and some travellers requested me if I might ever climb Everest,’ Parbati explains. That was the second she determined as soon as and for all, it was time. ‘I stated sure. I’ll do it in 2025.’
By saying it out loud, she wasn’t simply making a promise to herself; she was embodying the very spirit that Intrepid leaders are recognized for, displaying her group that zeal for journey is one thing you reside, breathe and dare to pursue.
‘I talked to Intrepid and informed them I wanted two months off work, throughout peak season. They had been so optimistic and supportive, it actually inspired me. At that time, I knew I needed to do it,’ she says. Intrepid backed her with a gear bundle whereas her trade friends and colleagues cheered her on, celebrating each step of her climb. ‘That’s not simply help,’ she provides, ‘that’s love.’
Residing a dream years within the making
Parbati arrived in Lukla on 20 April 2025 to finish the ultimate leg of a journey that began years in the past – again when she first examine Pasang Lhamu Sherpa as just a little woman.
After trekking to Everest Base Camp, adopted by every week of relaxation, on 1 Could, Parbati made her method past the foot of the Khumbu Icefall. Hopeful summiteers don’t simply deal with it as soon as. They make a number of acclimatisation journeys up and down, rotating between Base Camp, Camp 1 and Camp 2 to regulate to the altitude. Clad in down fits and crampons, they need to cross precarious ladders a number of instances, pushing towards exhaustion within the skinny, frigid air.
‘Crossing the ladders on Khumbu Icefall feels superb, nevertheless it’s additionally terrifying’, she says softly. ‘Whilst I speak about it now, I’m shaking. Photos and phrases can not describe that have.’
After virtually three weeks of acclimatising and climbing, Parbati started her last push towards the summit on 18 Could at 11:30 pm.
It wasn’t a straightforward feat. Her oxygen regulator had burst earlier that evening, and though she had been in a position to borrow a spare, she couldn’t enhance her circulation price, making each step a wrestle. Ice fell by means of the evening, as soon as placing her leg laborious, whereas her headlamp flickered out and in.
‘I used to be the final one [to leave Camp 4]. There was no gentle behind me, so it felt like I used to be preventing my very own battle,’ she says.
Parbati switched to a recent oxygen bottle on the South Summit, the place cylinders are stationed upfront by Sherpas or high-altitude porters for climbers making the ultimate push. There have been extra climbers round now, so her worry eased barely, however the actuality was no much less stark. The South Summit is a ridge within the ‘demise zone’ (over 8000 metres above sea degree) that narrows into the Cornice Traverse, a knife-edge part of snow and ice that results in the ultimate climb of the summit.
On 19 Could, at 9 am, after a gruelling ten-hour climb from Camp 4, Parbati reached the summit of Mount Everest. It was surprisingly nonetheless. ‘No dramatic view. No tears. Simply clouds, wind and silence.’
Round her, others marked the second in their very own methods: one man prayed going through Tibet, one other dropped to the bottom to do push-ups. She shared a number of emotional phrases with a girl from the Nepal Military. However for essentially the most half, Parbati selected to easily stand quietly, letting the second wash over her.
The descent
Among the many many sudden twists in Parbati’s journey, one second nonetheless aches: dropping her cellphone throughout a fumble shortly after summiting. ‘All the photographs, movies, reminiscences, gone,’ she says. ‘It felt like I’d left part of my coronary heart on that mountain.’
‘To get the Everest summit certificates, you want photographic proof. With out my cellphone, I had nothing,’ she explains. Fortunately, one of many climbers had requested her to take an image with them. ‘That single picture grew to become my solely proof and saved all the pieces.’
After a pitstop at Camp 2 to get better from her journey, Parbati started the ultimate descent along with her signature dedication, every step carrying her nearer to security. As she crossed the final main hurdle, Crampon Level – a spot the place the terrain transitions from snow and ice to rocky floor – she stopped to look again one final time.
‘I stood there silently, took a protracted, deep breath, and let your entire journey wash over me,’ she recollects. ‘Then I turned and stored strolling towards Base Camp.’
‘For a lot of trekkers, EBC is the hardest and last objective. However after summiting Everest, reaching Base Camp felt like discovering a sanctuary,’ Parbati laughs. ‘Individuals greeted me with juice and apples. It’s a practice to have fun a secure return.’
Should you ever determine to see Base Camp your self, you can be guided by somebody like Parbati, not only a chief however a climber who has carried her personal dream all the way in which to the highest of the world. To stroll along with her is to see and really feel the mountains with somebody who has actually lived them.
Parbati says if Everest might be summed up in a single phrase, it’s ‘anautho yatra’ (an uncommon journey). ‘There was worry. There was magnificence. There have been moments I assumed I’d by no means return. However I noticed the worst and one of the best of myself. And I stored strolling.’
When you’ve stood on the summit of Everest, maybe there actually isn’t any going again. As Parbati says, perhaps you do depart part of your coronary heart on the mountain and the one solution to discover it once more is to maintain climbing. ‘Possibly now, the Seven Summits,’ she says, smiling.
Trek to Everest Base Camp with Intrepid and a pioneering chief like Parbati Joshi.
