Malkit Singh at the summit of Mount Everest Photo: Supplied
New Zealander Malkit Singh has just climbed Mt Everest, making him the first member of New Zealand's Sikh community to make the climb.
Singh says he is no mountain climber, but is simply a determined 53-year-old from Papakura whose dreams of climbing the famed mountain was, in part, inspired by meeting Sir Edmund Hilary as a child.
He told First Up from his hospital bed in Kathmandu that he had been hit by exhaustion and dehydration.
"I lost appetite... couldn't eat for last 15 days. Dehydration happened, so that exhausted me. After I came back to base camp that landed me in hospital," Singh said.
He made it to Everest Base Camp with his group and was soon heading to camps closer to the summit where climbers acclimatise to the higher altitudes.
"After Base Camp, we had to do the rotation to Mount Lobuche. That is 6119 metres. After I came down from that mountain.. I lost [appetite], not feeling like eating anything. If I tried to eat, I vomited."
He told First Up that he first had the thought to climb the mountain only two years ago.
"I'm not a mountaineering guy. I was just a simple guy. I was just doing the job and then I got in contact with some Canadian guy and he told me that he wants to do it."
He said brushes with mountaineering royalty helped inspire him.
"I had previously met Edmund Hillary in Auckland. Before, when I was living in India, he had come to my school.
"That connection made me achieve this one now, when I'm 53."
Malkit Singh at the summit of Mount Everest Photo: Supplied
At the top, Singh raised the New Zealand flag and the Sikh flag.
The group's time at the summit was limited, but he said it was amazing.
"You're exhausted, you're finished. But when once you reach there, you feel like a different world. People around you, all are exhausted.
"Once they reach the top, they just feel fresh and like, not that fresh [but] they get energy to stand or sit down. You get only a 15 to 20 minute window to do that."
Singh told First Up there are a lot of people attempting to summit Everest on any given day, and the weather plays a vital part in deciding when to make that final ascent.
"In our group [there] was 70, the next day it was more than 150. But the problem is the weather window.
"You start [climbing] and after poor weather, then you have to come back. Then you're finished, you can't go again."
Once the okay is given to begin an attempt on the summit, the butterflies kicked in.
"Your brain stops. Your brain is not working. You're just going up. You feel excitement, but your energy drains you."
Singh said he had started eating and hopes to be well enough to leave hospital in the next few days, and to be back home in Auckland as soon as possible.
