Everest is one of the highest, mightiest mountains which has defied many previous attempts. Posing great difficulties, it takes the last ounce of one’s energy according to the narrator Major H.P.S Ahluwalia. A brutal struggle with rock and ice, once taken up, cannot be given up halfway even when one’s life is at stake. The passage back is as difficult as the passage onwards.

Eventually, when the summit is climbed, there comes the exhilaration, the joy of having done something, the sense of a battle fought and won. This very feeling of victory coupled with happiness makes the risky adventure, a pleasurable one.