After surviving a near-fatal fall on Mount Everest, Chennai-based fertility specialist Dr Priya Selvaraj reflects on grief, resilience and why the world’s highest peak became a journey inward, says CSS Latha.
Scaling Mount Everest is the ultimate conquest for many, but for Dr Priya Selvaraj, it was anything but. The Chennai-based obstetrician, fertility specialist and Director of GG Hospital stood atop the world’s highest peak after weeks of enduring extreme conditions, navigating the treacherous Khumbu Icefall and surviving a near-fatal fall into a crevasse. Yet, when she speaks of Everest, there is no triumphalism. Instead, she describes it as a deeply spiritual journey, one that taught her acceptance, humility and the courage to let go. The mountains, she says, found her when she needed them most.
Finding Solace In The Mountains
It was grief that first led Dr Priya Selvaraj to the mountains. Towards the end of the pandemic, following the loss of her father, she found herself yearning for an escape from a life that revolved almost entirely around home and hospital. “I needed to get away,” she recalls. “I wanted to connect with nature and heal.”
On a whim, she and a friend signed up for a trek to Sandakphu, West Bengal’s highest peak. What began as an escape from grief soon became something far greater. Along the trail, she met people who, like her, had come seeking silence, perspective and a reset from the chaos of everyday life.
That first trek opened the door to many others. Kilimanjaro, Everest Base Camp, Lobuche East and eventually Manaslu followed, each expedition building her confidence and technical ability. Lobuche East qualified her for higheraltitude climbs, while Manaslu — known as the Mountain of the Spirit — proved to be the final stepping stone before Everest.
When Everest Came Calling
Ironically, Everest had never been part of her plan. “I found it intimidating,” she admits. “It had become commercialised, overcrowded and polluted.”
But after completing Manaslu, the opportunity arose. With barely four months to prepare, she intensified her training under the same coach who had guided her since Kilimanjaro. Her days revolved around endurance workouts, strength training and mobility exercises to prepare her body for the demands of high-altitude climbing, particularly the punishing descent, when exhaustion and depleted oxygen levels claim many lives.
The expedition itself would take nearly two months. Before attempting the summit, climbers must repeatedly ascend and descend the mountain to acclimatise to the thinning air. The route passes through the constantly shifting Khumbu Icefall to Camp 1, then on to Camps 2 and 3, before reaching Camp 4 in the infamous “death zone” – above 8,000 metres. From there begins the final summit push — a race against time, weather and diminishing oxygen, with climbers required to turn back if they fail to reach the summit by the afternoon cut-off.
“It isn’t just about reaching the top,” she says. “The real challenge is making it back safely.”
The Fall That Changed Everything
It was during the descent that Dr Selvaraj faced the moment that would redefine her life. She and her Sherpa guide, Anup Gurung, were the last climbers crossing the Khumbu Icefall in the darkness. The glacier is constantly shifting, and a crevasse they had crossed earlier had widened. “I thought I had enough energy to make the jump,” she recalls. “I misjudged it and fell.”
The safety rope arrested her fall, but not before she slammed against the walls of the crevasse. “As I was falling, I remember thinking, ‘This is it’. There was no panic. I had accepted it.”
Suspended above the icy depths, she assessed herself. She was conscious. She could move. Instead of giving in to fear, she called out to reassure her guide, who was frantic with worry. “I had to calm him. I told him, ‘I’m all right. I don’t think I have any fractures. Let’s think practically about what to do next’.”
Using her crampons (spiked attachments worn over boots to provide grip on ice and snow), she managed to climb only part of the way. The ice was too smooth for them to gain purchase. Finally, Anup clipped his own safety rope to her harness and, with tremendous effort, hauled her to safety. “We just sat there afterwards and processed what had happened,” she says. “When you’re climbing with a Sherpa, you’re responsible for each other’s lives. We had both been through something extraordinary.”
More Than A Summit
The experience changed her understanding of the mountain. “That day I realised the mountains have to grant you passage. You really need the blessings of Sagarmatha. She gave me the greatest challenge, but she also gave me life through my Sherpa.”
When she finally reached the summit, the moment was about far more than personal achievement. She unfurled the flag of the GG Fertility Research Foundation, an initiative supporting cancer patients who wish to preserve their fertility before treatment — a cause she hoped to carry to the top of the world.
A Second Lease On Life
Surviving the expedition has left her with a profound shift in perspective. “I’ve been given a second lease on life. When you’ve stood on the brink of death, you learn acceptance. You become mentally stronger. You stop expecting so much from people. You learn to walk away from negativity, and your ego simply disappears.”
The mountains, she believes, strip away everything except what truly matters. For Dr Priya Selvaraj, Everest was never about standing above the clouds or collecting another accolade. It was about discovering resilience in grief, finding purpose through adversity and returning home with a quieter understanding of life itself. “For me,” she says, “climbing mountains is a spiritual journey, not a conquest.”
