Nine Maldivians to Everest

Olympic swimmer Ahmed Imtiyaz stands on Gokyo Ri at 5,300 metres, with Mount Everest, Lhotse, and Makalu (respectively the highest, fourth and fifth highest mountains in the world)in the background, in an image grab of Hulhevi Media's documentary Maldivians on Mountains. If all goes well, at least nine more Maldivians may stand on the same peak this May.

This new group of young adventurers, three women and six men, are flying out to Trivandrum, India, tomorrow, to begin a one-month trek to the foot of Mount Everest in the Nepal Himalaya.

They will travel more than 4,000 km overland by train and bus to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, fly out to Lukla, from where they hope to hike all the way to up to Kala Pattar, above Mount Everest Base Camp, cross the Chola Pass, and summit Gokyo Ri.

I'm delighted that so many Maldivians are visiting the mountains that have given me so much pleasure in the last 15 years of my life.

It was in 1990 that three Maldivian girls first summitted Kala Pattar, 5,500 metres above sea-level. I first climbed Kala Pattar in 1994, followed by Muha in 2005. Ahmed and Narcu summitted Kala Pattar last November.

So seven Maldivans are known to have climbed Kala Pattar, three of them women.

I'm very excited about the new adventurers and will be following their blog, kaalhuguibangaalhu, every day for the next month.

I'm sitting on a terrace in Hulhumale as I write this post, and drinking a cup of green tea (for which Muha and I acquired a taste in Tibet in 2005) to celebrate their journey.

Best wishes to Elivs, Shaz, Mona, Ayya, Zoona, Athi, Nasee, Shaad and Yaabe. Elvis and Shaz trained to go on the trek back in 2004, but the Maoist unrest in Nepal prevented them from completing their adventure.