NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH

AN INDIAN FATHER-DAUGHTER DUO IS MAKING HISTORY BY CLIMBING SOME OF THE WORLD’S TALLEST MOUNTAINS

Even before we speak, it seems clear that Ajeet and Deeya Bajaj take fitness seriously—they request for an interview after Ajeet’s early morning swim—“I have to swim from 7 am to 8 am every day,” he says. On June 5 this year, the fatherdaughter duo summited Denali in Alaska, which is the tallest mountain in North America, thereby becoming the first Asian parent-child team to complete the Seven Summits challenge. “Denali is right at the Arctic Circle—it’s really cold and you have 24 hours of daylight,” says Ajeet. Prior to the climb, they spent five days kayaking and hiking in Alaska to warm up. “It was a very good, intense climb. You’re carrying about 60 kg up the mountain—all your food and supplies for the 21 days you’re expected to be on the expedition,” says Deeya, 28, who studies at Wharton. They completed the expedi

tion even as temperatures plunged to -45°C. Ajeet, 57, rates it as the second toughest of the Seven Summits after Mount Everest, which they had climbed from the more challenging north side in Tibet, in 2018.

The Bajaj family has always loved the outdoors. “My father used to take me trekking when I was very young,” recalls Ajeet. So, when it was his turn, he started hiking with Deeya and his younger daughter, Meghna—as toddlers, they could often be seen hanging from his back. “Now they ski, do whitewater kayaking, hold black belts in taekwondo and are rescue divers,” he says. Deeya, it turned out, had a taste for even more daring adventures. When she was 14, they set off on their first ‘major’ expedition. “We were a part of an Indo-US team and did a sea kayaking expedition for about 18 days along the fjords of West Greenland,” says Ajeet, who is the first Indian to finish the Polar Trilogy. He received a Padma Shri in 2012. “We were out in this mind-blowing wilderness where we would catch fish for dinner, see blue whales and arctic foxes.”

Three years later, they embarked on their first extreme expedition—a crosscountry skiing expedition across the Greenland ice cap—and have, so far, completed around a dozen expeditions around the world.

Father and daughter share a unique dynamic. “We think alike, especially in emergencies. We just look at each other and know exactly what we are going to do,” says Deeya. As honorary ambassadors of the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign, they aim to spread awareness about the girl child through their expeditions. “In a country like ours, often, I think, women aren’t given the same opportunities as men,” says Deeya. In a similar vein, Ajeet adds, “Given opportunities, girls can attain the greatest heights possible and that, I feel, will take our country to the next level.” ■