When you were busy damaging your knuckles, ruining your wrists and shoulders, bent over that laptop, preparing your next PPT, an Excel sheet or a marketing plan to ensure the five or six figure salary – you were oblivious that an unassuming, media shy man from Bona village of Kumaon, Love Raj Singh Dharmshaktu, had quietly crept up Mt Everest (8858m) for the SEVENTH time yesterday. Yes, for the 7th time… the only Indian to have run up and down the highest point so many times as if it was a morning jog. Along with him were six other members of his team flirting with the clouds on top of the world.

Having first climbed Everest in 1998, Love Raj repeated the feat in 2006, 2009, 2012, 2013, twice in 2017 once again for the seventh time on 20th May 2018. Besides Mt Everest Love Raj has climbed, in all, 38 peaks including the fearsome Kanchenjunga (8586m).

My first meeting with Love Raj was in the lovely hamlet of Munsiyari (Pithoragarh distt) of Kumaon in August 1989 when we were making final preparations for our expedition to Mt Nanda Kot (6861m) overlooking the Longstaff Col and twin peaks of Nanda Devi.

All of sixteen years at that time, Love Raj Singh was still in high school and had tagged along the expedition with his cousins ‘just for fun’. He wasn’t even a part of the group to begin with. I don’t remember if he had even been on a high altitude trek before that, leave aside a full scale expedition. Honoured with Padma Shri in 2014, Love Raj Singh did his basic mountaineering course a year later in 1990. It had been drizzling through the afternoon and the evening was rather chilly, yet Love Raj was wearing a thin cotton shirt and had rubber slippers in his big feet with no socks. Standing in the veranda outside the cottage where we were staying, the two of us were admiring the snow covered Panchchuli massifs only a few kilometre from us. He was so shy that he barely conversed. His mettle was proven over the next one month when he was always the first one to head for the next camp with a heavy load and virtually bereft of any gear. He didn’t even get the climbing boots as the expedition was short of them. No ice-axe, no thermal jacket, a very ordinary pair of dark shades covered on sides with cloth and tape to protect against the UV exposure. An innocent smile never left his face, his laughter saved the moment in toughest of situations, and, his lyrical rendition of Kumaoni songs of love and longing evoked pleasant emotions dissipating physical distress in cold and cramped tents. Despite all odds (two accidents towards the end, broken bones and rib cages, frost bites and shortage of ration) the expedition was a success. We summited in mid September. The happy go lucky lad of Nanda Kot expedition is now a phenomena in Indian mountaineering, Salute to your courage, determination and achievements Comrade and Friend Love Raj Singh may you achieve all that you attempt. Just like your name, spread Love.

Our Nanda Kot expedition was led by the iron-lady of Indian mountaineering Padma Shri Chandra Prabha Aitwal (then 57 years of age). Nine members of the team successfully climbed Nanda Kot after much struggle at and beyond Advance Base Camp due to heavy snow-fall and avalanches rolling down the nearby Changuch peak, in which the ABC was destroyed; equipment and ration was irretrievably buried and for nearly a week all of us thought that the weather gods were not in a mood to let us climb. We retreated and waited patiently at the base camp only to be rewarded with what was desired. But, that is a story for another day.

As if not content with his own exploits Love Raj chose Reena Kaushal, as his partner and wife, herself a successful mountaineer, having led many an expeditions. Adrenalin filled adventurer that she is, Reena Kaushal holds the record as the first woman from India to ski to the South Pole from the coast of the Antarctica. Cheers to the two of you.

May 21, 2018

1. “Nanda Kot, 1989. On August 21, 1989, our Base Camp was placed above the highest village Lawan at Lachhmanpatti at 14,000 feet. Advance Base was occupied at 16,000 feet on the 26th. During the night it began to snow and kept on until the 28th when we retreated to Base Camp. When the weather cleared on August 30, we went up again and shifted Advance Base further up. Camps I, II, III and IV were set up on September 1,3,4 and 5. On the 6th we reconnoitered to an ice wall. The ridge leading to the summit was narrow. Nine of us gained the summit of Nanda Kot (6861 meters, 22,510 feet) on September 8, 1989. Two others came up directly from Camp III and we helped them to reach the top.” – from another post sometime in 1992.