"I Didn't Conquer Everest – I Conquered Myself"

Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala Reflects on Her Journey to the Top of the World

- BY IFHAM NIZAM

In the quiet of the Himalayan winds, where oxygen is thin and every step feels like a battle against your own body, Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala stood at the top of the world—Mount Everest. But the peak, she says, wasn’t something she conquered. “I never conquered Everest,” she reflects, “it’s impossible to do that. We are just human beings. Nature is really powerful. But I certainly conquered myself.”

Jayanthi’s story is not merely about summiting a mountain; it is a deeply personal journey of pushing limits, defying gender stereotypes, and finding humility in the face of nature’s vastness.

Speaking at a recent event hosted by the Nepal Embassy in Colombo, Jayanthi offered a moving recollection of her 2016 Everest expedition. In a room filled with diplomats, travel professionals, and students, she stood not as a mountaineering celebrity but as a storyteller, drawing her audience into the spiritual, physical, and emotional odyssey that took her to 8,848 meters above sea level.

She began with a photograph—tiny yellow dots in a vast white landscape. “Here you can actually see a view of Base Camp, which is actually at the bottom here. Those tiny yellow dots, those are the tents at Base Camp. And if you keep looking up here, that’s the Khumbu Icefall,” she narrated, tracing the journey with her finger. “And Mount Everest is hiding at the back.”