Meet the woman who surmounted many challenges to scale the world’s highest mountains
Despite a rough childhood, 36-year-old Kamal Kaur persevered to scale some of the highest peaks in the world, and raise money for social causes along the way. In times like these, hers is a story worth telling.
American poet Robert Frost said in Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Kamal Kaur has lived by these words all her life. Fondly known as the ‘The Kam Lady’, 36-year-old Kamal was born and raised at West Midlands in England. Despite a having a rough adolescence and losing her mother at the tender age of 15, she managed to follow her dreams and emerge victorious.
36-year-old Kamal Kaur.
Kamal started off her career by pursuing fashion designing at Leicester College. Ever curious, she wanted to try her hand at different gigs, from a sales assistant to bartending. However, the mountains called and she had to answer. Chasing her love for adventure and adrenaline, Kamal became a mountaineer.
“My tryst with trekking and climbing mountains began with the intention of raising funds for charity. When the organisers of Three Peaks Challenge approached me to scale three of the highest peaks in the UK within 24 hours, I immediately agreed,” Kamal Kaur tells SocialStory.
Kamal on the way to the summit.
From then on, there was no looking back. Till date, the ambitious Kamal has managed to raise over £10,000 for social causes through expeditions. And, in the last ten years, she has scaled some of the greatest peaks around the world, including Mount Everest and Kilimanjaro.
A thorny adolescence and braving all odds
Even if it is coloured by nostalgia, for most of us, our growing years remains an idyllic period preserved in time as the age of innocence. Not so for Kamal. She went through debilitatting mental as well as physical abuse as a teenager due to certain external factors, and, that had left an indelible imprint on her. Just when she was about to recoup, Kamal lost her mother.
Kamal Kaur overcame a traumatic adolescence and emerged victorious.
“It was a very tough phase for me. It took a long time for me to get back up. I was dealing with multiple issues – eating disorders, anger management, anxiety, and so on. My mother Yashpal was my biggest support system. She had taught me to be strong and compassionate. This reason I am focused, calm, and disciplined today is because of the values she ingrained in me,” Kamal recalls.
Bouncing back from her mother’s demise, Kamal kicked off her fitness regimen when she was as young as 17. Her routine included off-road running, cardio and weight lifting. “It was my way of shoving aside negative thoughts and relieving stress,” she notes.
Kamal Kaur sweating it out at the gym.
Her love for the mountains blossomed when she undertook the Three Peaks 24-hour challenge to raise funds for charity. The expeditions involved summiting the three highest peaks in UK — Mount Snowdon in Wales, Ben Nevis in Scotland, and Scafell Pike in England — in a span of 24 hours.
“I attempted the Three Peaks challenge without any training in mountaineering. But I had the confidence that I would make it. And, when I actually did, I experienced a unique sense of bliss and tranquillity. It was simply inexplicable. From then on, I never really stopped and mountaineering helped me recoup,” she says.
Ain’t no mountain high enough
Immediately after, in 2010, Kamal summited Mount Kilimanjaro with a group of firefighters to help raise funds for the UK Fire Fighters Charity.
In between all the adventures, Kamal used to take up various jobs to pool in the required money for her trekking junkets. That is not all. She also took time off to add value to the community around her by volunteering with NGOs, orphanages, and schools in other countries like India, South America, and Africa.
'The Kam Lady' with her mountaineering gear.
“Even as a teenager, I have always felt socially responsible. I derived immense satisfaction from uplifting other individuals and contributing to their welfare,” Kamal says.
In the last few years, Kamal managed to conquer five of the Seven Summits, including Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, Aconcagua in South America, Mount Meru in Africa, Mount Elbrus in Russia, and Denali in North America. She has also tackled 10 high-altitude mountains across the globe: Machu Picchu and Mount Misti in South America, Cho Oyu in Tibet, and Ama Dablam in Nepal, among others.
In 2019, Kamal decided to take on the highest mountain on the planet—the Mount Everest. Her journey to the top was not only treacherous, but also tested every aspect of her physical and mental strength.
Kamal with her fellow trekkers at the base camp.
“A lot of things went wrong during my journey. The base camp manager was not well equipped and did not guide us correctly. The Sherpa who was helping me with all the tactics and equipment fell sick in between, and at one point, I had to go on all by myself. I fell a couple of times during the descent, too,” Kamal recalls.
She nevertheless kept going and never entertained the idea of giving up even once.
“By the time I got back to the base camp, I had multiple injuries and frost bites all over my hands and feet. Everything said and done, the most depressing moment for me was when I heard that one of my fellow climbers had lost his life during the course of the climb,” she explains.
Kamal Kaur during one of the expeditions.
Even in the face of all the struggles to get to the top of the Everest, Kamal experienced true euphoria when she realised that she had ascended it.
Today, Kamal says she hopes to be an inspiration to many other women who want to follow their passion so they don't get bogged down by the hurdles lying ahead of them.
After all, in the words of Mary Johnson, “A successful woman is one who can build a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at her”.
(Edited by Evelyn Ratnakumar)