'Iron woman' of Mysuru scales Mount Everest

At 6.10 a.m. on May 19, Dr. Usha Hegde, a professor at JSS Dental College in Mysuru, etched history by becoming the first civilian from not only Mysuru, but entire Karnataka to scale Mount Everest, the tallest peak in the world, standing at a height of 29,031 ft.

A mother of two students of medicine and wife of an orthopaedic doctor, Dr. Usha realised her dream of reaching the ‘top of the world’ at the age of 52.

Major Smitha Lakshman, who was part of an Army team, is the only other woman mountaineer from Karnataka to reach the peak of Mt. Everest in 2012. Dr. Usha is the first civilian from the State to have accomplished the ‘Himalayan feat’, according to mountaineers and adventure sports enthusiasts from Mysuru.

As a triathlete, who had completed the gruelling Ironman Western Australia event in 2019, Dr. Usha was not new to taking up formidable challenges and even completing them with elan.

“Though I was active in sports during my student days, it was limited to college-level sports,” she told The Hindu. Starting with running in her early 40s, Dr. Usha was initially participating in 5K and 10K runs in Mysuru before graduating to half-marathons and marathons in different parts of India. When the Ironman challenge beckoned, she took to hours of cycling and enrolled herself for training in swimming before emerging as a triathlete.

Despite her background in endurance sports, Dr. Usha undertook a couple of mountaineering expeditions to places like Ladakh, Uttarkashi, Nepal, and to Africa, where she scaled Mount Kilamanjaro in Tanzania, which is the tallest peak in Africa, standing at a height of 19,340 ft, before aiming for Mount Everest, the tallest in the world.

She underwent months of preparation, including a technical training programme at Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) in Jamshedpur that helped instil confidence in her to face the likely challenges she could encounter, like negotiating glaciers, crevasses and rocky surfaces, in the mighty Himalayas.

Realising that she had to take her physical fitness to a higher level, Dr. Usha was not only hitting the gym regularly for strength training, but also increasing her endurance level by walking with a 14-kg backpack for a couple of hours on alternate days. She was also spotted climbing the steps of Chamundi Hills with a load on her back and weights tied around her ankles.

“I used to go up and down the Chamundi Hills with the load a couple of times for at least 2-3 days in a week,” she said.

Being physically fit was only half the battle won for Dr. Usha. Realising the importance of mental strength when taking up a challenge like an expedition to Mount Everest, she practised pranayama every day to work on her breathing while training her mind to be strong.

Dr. Usha recalls that she was balancing her duties as a professor of Oral Pathology and Microbiology at JSS Dental College in Mysuru and at home while preparing to climb Mt. Everest.

Her expedition began in the first week of April this year when she left Mysuru, and flew to Kathmandu in Nepal from Bengaluru before reaching Lukla. After about eight days of trekking from Lukla, she reached the Everest Base Camp, situated at a height of 17,598 ft.

She spent about three weeks in the base camp from where she made a couple of treks to the higher reaches of the nearby mountains for acclimatisation. The route of their trek to Mount Everest had already been charted out by an advance team that also arranges for their camping en route.

Dr. Usha was accompanied by Phurba Sherpa. The others in the group were a Bangladeshi and a Chilean with their respective Sherpas. After waiting for ideal weather conditions, they began the climb on May 13. The weather had to be good for the next five days, which was the estimated time required to reach the peak of Mount Everest.

Dr. Usha recalls the trek to Camp 1 through the Khumb Ice Fall as the most treacherous part of the expedition. The group negotiated snow showers and crevasses, and dealt with depleted oxygen levels at high altitudes and extremely low temperatures dipping to as low as minus 40 degree Celsius, and passed three camps before reaching Camp 4.

On May 18, when the weather was clear, Dr. Usha headed out for the final summit from Camp 4 at 6 p.m. After trekking throughout the night in sub-zero temperatures, she approached the narrow ridge that leads to the ‘top of the world’. At 6.10 a.m. on May 19, she flew the tricolour atop the world’s tallest peak.

Reaching the tallest peak on planet Earth may have helped Dr. Usha realise her dream, but the descent from Mt. Everest is also to be taken as seriously, if not more. For, most deaths occur during the descent, she pointed out.

Among the eight mountaineers dying during the 2024 season were two Mongolians, who attempted the climb without oxygen support. Even though the Mongolians managed to scale the peak, they died during the descent.

Dr. Usha managed to safely descend to the base camp before reaching Kathmandu and returning to Mysuru.

However, she is not done yet. She will soon be preparing for the Boston marathon.

“I have qualified for Boston marathon thrice earlier, but have not been able to make it so far for various reasons”, she said hoping to tick it off her bucket list in the coming days.

Age, it appears, is just a number for Dr. Usha, who wishes for more women to follow their passions and achieve greater heights.