Everest Twins plan to climb New Zealand’s highest peak

Nungshi and Tashi Malik, known as “Everest Twins” for their mountain climbing achievements, are in the UK to raise awareness for the ‘Beti Bachao’ campaign. They entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the first women twins to scale Everest and first twin siblings to scale the Seven Summits. They are now on a mission to raise funds for their Nungshi Tashi Foundation in the UK this month. 

The next mission on the twins’ calendar is to climb Mount Cook in December, the highest mountain in New Zealand. If successful, this will again be a first as twins. “The foundation is dedicated to advancing and empowering the lives of Indian girls and women through outdoors, adventure sports and mountaineering. We have stretched our family’s resources as far as they can go and want to raise awareness to attract funds for this mission,” said Nungshi, president of the foundation. 

The 25-year-old twins set up the foundation last year after they became the first South Asians to complete the “Explorers’ Grand Slam” by scaling the highest peaks in all continents and skiing to the North and South Poles. 

“There is an alarming ‘economic migration’ from the greater Himalayan regions to the plains, making girls and women especially vulnerable to exploitation and human trafficking. The aim of our foundation is two-fold – to raise awareness around adventure sports and tourism and provide women and girls in the region the right support. This ties in with the government’s ‘Beti Bachao’ as well as Skill India mission,” Nungshi said.