Recently, I watched a remarkable documentary on Netflix, 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible. It tells the extraordinary story of the Nepali mountaineer Nirmal “Nimsdai” Purja and his seemingly impossible ambition to climb all fourteen of the world’s peaks above 8,000 metres. These fourteen peaks are scattered across the Himalayas and Karakoram, in Pakistan, Nepal, China, and India. Purja completed the challenge in a record-breaking period of just seven months in 2019, a feat that placed him among the most celebrated high-altitude mountaineers in the world.

The modern world contains numerous extreme sports in which participants deliberately expose themselves to potentially catastrophic injury.

The modern world contains numerous extreme sports in which participants deliberately expose themselves to potentially catastrophic injury.

I found the documentary immensely captivating. The scenery was breathtaking, the physical challenges extraordinary, and the determination of the climbers almost difficult to comprehend. The film captures the beauty of the mountains, but also their indifference to human ambition. A mountain does not care how experienced, determined, or courageous a person may be. At extreme altitude, nature remains in control.

As I watched the film, however, another thought repeatedly came to my mind.

Why would anyone repeatedly expose himself to a danger in which the ultimate price can be death?

Perhaps this is a question that only a mountaineer can truly answer. As a physician, I found myself looking at the same events from an entirely different perspective. I could admire the courage, discipline, endurance, and extraordinary physical fitness required to climb such mountains, while at the same time wondering about the wisdom of repeatedly placing one’s life in such extreme danger of conquering the so-called killer mountains.

The question became even more poignant for me because I have had a few personal encounters with high altitude.

Many years ago, when I was relatively young, I travelled to Switzerland with a group of doctors to attend a medical conference in Geneva. During the trip, we visited Zermatt, one of the most spectacular mountain resorts in the Swiss Alps. From the lower level, we travelled by bus and then........

© Daily Times