Imagine your feet are ice cold, your lips are trembling and you’re almost at the peak of a mountain. It’s a high, one has to experience to know the real feeling. And that’s what this qualified mountaineer from Nehru Institute of Mountaineering does and cherishes every moment of. She is the first mountaineer from Karnataka to climb two mountains (Mt Bhagirathi and Mt Satopanth) and now she aspires to climb Mt Everest in May 2014 without oxygen. With over a decade of corporate experience and a passion to evolve adventure as the most effective learning tool, to revive the spirit of adventure, and be environment cognizant, Bengaluru girl, Kavitha Reddy started an adventure enterprise, to help those looking for outbound learning and adventure travel.
Kavitha has scaled several peaks in the Indian and Nepal Himalayas, including some of the most challenging peaks like Mt Satopanth (7075 meters) and is the first mountaineer from Karnataka to climb Mt Satopanth and Mt Bhagirathi. “Mountain climbing is very challenging; surviving in extreme conditions for a long period puts your physical and mental ability to test and is an experience that can change the way you look at life and nature,” shares the CEO of Basecamp Adventures Pvt Ltd.
Talking about how, after her education, even though she wanted to become a fighter pilot, she took to the corporate world, and became the co-founder vice-president of Team Lease Services, Kavitha says, “I worked with a few start-up companies and was very clear that I would start something someday. Over a period of time there were no more challenges and I knew it was time to plunge into adventure travel and that’s when I opened Basecamp Adventures. There are a lot of people who want to take to mountaineering. Mountaineering is not about adrenaline rush, it’s about endurance. To take up mountaineering there are basic and advance mountaineering courses at Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering, Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering, NOLS etc for about 28 days each and trainees are put through rigorous sessions,” she adds.
Sharing her experience, she recounts, “One thing about adventure is that when you come back even the most risky or difficult thing can sound funny and make you laugh. Once due to excess winds and heavy snowfall, I could not get out of the tent for almost 24 hours. In mountaineering, there has to be plan A, B and C and there is a very thin line between being stupid and adventurous. I met many CEO’s and VPs who have been part of our leadership, outbound training and team building programmes. Today, I am aware and concerned about the need to save our environment,” says, the associate member of Indian Mountaineering Foundation, who also helps raise funds for Kaagaz Foundation an NGO through her avid photography.
