Members of the elite group of Indian mountaineers, triathletes, swimmers, runners, and cyclists who are pushing the frontier of human endurance to set new standards in their sport. Plenty of athletes turn to extreme sports for good old-fashioned bragging rights for others it's about more than just a trill.
It is an addicting dopamine fix to push past personal boundaries in order to score another victory. Only a few are endowed with the strength of body and mind needed to push past the limitations set by accepted notions of human physiology. Since climbing emerged as a sport in Europe about 150 years ago, no one has believed it is humanly conceivable to ascend an 8,000-meter Himalayan summit without the aid of supplemental oxygen.
Then along with Peter Habeler, famed Italian alpinist Reinhold Messner became the first person to climb Gasherbrum I in the Karakoram mountain range without using oxygen in 1975. They completed it in three days only.
The two repeated their accomplishment on Mount Everest in 1978, becoming the first mountaineers to ascend the highest peak in the world without using oxygen. Messner became the first person to solo climb Everest without oxygen assistance two years later.
He used the same technique to ascend all of the remaining 8000-meter Himalayan summits over the course of the following eight years. He became the first person to climb all fourteen 8000-meter summits in the world without using any oxygen when he summited Lhotse in 1986.
This remarkable accomplishment had taken Messner 16 years to complete. Kim Chang-ho, a famous climber from South Korea, smashed his previous record in 2013 by climbing all 8,000ers without the use of oxygen in less than eight years.
Then, in 2019, a new legend started to spread. The limits of what people can accomplish have been further pushed by 35-year-old Nepalese climber Nirmal Purja, who did all 8,000ers in just six months and six days.
Men like Nirmal Purja, Kim Chang-ho, and Reinhold Messner stand out because of their ability to embrace the deepest human anxieties and their determination to push through hardships despite them. These are the toughest of the tough in the realm of adventure.
Superhuman endurance is not just a trait of hardy Himalayan climbers like Purja or alpine inhabitants like Messner. In India, there are many men and women who consistently push the boundaries of what is possible.
For instance, until around 20 years ago, India rarely had any marathon runners beyond a small group of guys who participated in competitive running, mostly from the military.
Similar to this, the majority of top mountaineers came from government organizations like the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and participated in extensive excursions that were funded by the government.
Today, however, there are people like Arjun Vajpai who have already reached the top of six 8,000-meter summits in their quest to become the first Indian to climb all nine of these peaks.
Or Keval Kakka from Mumbai, who is chasing him down with six of his own 8,000-meter summits. But now, there are climbers like Arjun Vajpai from Delhi, who has reached the top of six 8,000-meter peaks in his quest to be the first Indian to ascend all nine peaks reachable by Indians (five of which are in the Karakoram, where access is via Pakistan), or Keval Kakka from Mumbai, who is right behind him and has reached the top of six 8,000-meter peaks as well.
Not everyone has the capacity to go beyond what is thought to be humanly possible in terms of physical and mental endurance.
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