Climbing Everest

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PHOTO COURTESY OF RAHA MOHARRAK

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Raha Moharrak navigating the tricky sections of Everest’s slope.

T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine

CLIMBING EVEREST

Raha Moharrak, the first Saudi woman to climb Mount Everest, gives a step-by-step guide to scaling challenges both in life and on mountains. She opens up about her family, the big climb, and how her phone hasn’t stopped ringing since she got back home.

BY AYSWARYA MURTHY

A reason to celebrate; during Raha’s climb at Kilimanjaro.

Learn to travel before you learn to walk Although Raha Moharrak lived in a middle-class neighborhood in Jeddah till she was 16, her growingup days were anything but typical.

“My parents loved to travel and firmly believed that it enriched us,” she says. “Annual vacations were a family tradition ever since I was a baby. We were encouraged to go horseback riding and swimming and soak up the local culture.” This tradition, she believes, instilled in her an uncharacteristic bravery, nurtured a spirit that continuously craved adventure, and taught her to view the world as her muse.

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Be predictably unpredictable

Moha poses at the bustling and picturesque Jumeriah in Dubai.

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PHOTO CREDIT: JUDITH PHILIP

You don’t simply wake up one day and announce to the family that you are going to climb Everest. They’d feel your forehead and ask you to sleep it off. No, it takes a lifetime of conditioning that keeps them in a constant state of “Oh-God-what-is-shegoing-to-do-next”. Raha, it would seem, has been subconsciously preparing her folks for this eventuality since forever. “My family is accustomed to my quirkiness,” she says. “I spent my early childhood days digging up stuff in the garden, climbing trees and generally refusing to sit still.”

And Raha grew up thus, perpetually adrenaline-fueled, resembling a shook-up cola can rather than anything human; so much so that when she went sky diving and shark diving on the same day, her dad barely batted an eyelid.

Seek an escape

PHOTO COURTESY OF RAHA MOHARRAK

Exploring Nepal’s historic and scenic locales during her downtime.

What would persuade a chirpy art director, living in one of the most vibrant cities in the world, to suddenly pack up her bags and skip to the mountains? Homecoming and, one supposes, hordes of relatives? “When I decided to climb Kilimanjaro, my first summit ever, I had just left my job in Dubai and come home,” she remembers. Bugged by all the talk of women being unproductive, lazy and only fit for marriage and kids, Raha needed an escape, a challenge. Someone suggested Kilimanjaro. And she thought: “Why not?” Never mind that she had never climbed even a hill before. Never mind that her parents had a fit. (“Wait, what?! You are going to live in a tent for a week? And then climb the highest mountain in Africa?!!”) – those technicalities would be sorted out later.

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Subthe On Section Verge Raha’s mountaineering team - Arabs with Altitude

Put together a lovable, crack team of climbers

Friends in high places

Raha at Everest Basecamp

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PHOTO CREDIT: (TOP) ANG PHURBA SHERPA; (MIDDLE) ELIA SAIKALY, (BELOW) PHOTO COURTESY OF RAHA MOHARRAK

Raha had been to the same university as Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani and Raed Zidan, although they graduated many years apart. “So when I decided to climb Kilimanjaro, I reconnected with them for guidance,” she says. The guys, along with Masoud Mohammad, were already many summits old and only happy to take her under their wings. Thus was born a sitcomworthy alliance – Arabs with Altitude: Raha, the offbeat and effervescent “girly-girl”; Raed, the “big brother, father and joker of the group”; the intellectual, caring and charismatic “Moe” Al Thani who always had an interesting story up his sleeve; and “the shy and silent Matt”. We’d definitely watch that show!

In love with vintage at Jumeriah, Dubai

Persistence and timing are everything

PHOTO CREDIT: JUDITH PHILIP

When she first floated the idea of Kilimanjaro (and, eighteen months later, Everest) she admits that her family came down on it with a big fat ‘no’. But Raha was determined.

She began systematically wearing them down with statistics, travel company brochures and detailed research on safety precautions. At various points, her fellow climbers from Arabs with Altitude took turns to plead on her behalf. “But in the end, nothing would convince them except when they saw how much I wanted it,” she says. Finally, a strategic and welltimed effort clinched the deal.

“When my dad asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I said ‘I want Everest’ and he gave in,” she smiles. “All he said was, ‘Promise me that you’ll come back safe.’”

And she kept her promise.

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The road to Everest; caught between splashes of color and pristine white snow

“I had just finished my third summit when Moe suggested that we climb Everest together in 2013. I wasn’t sure I was ready for it,” says Raha. But realizing this was a now-or-never moment, she fast-tracked her mountaineering experience and climbed almost five mountains in under a year, in preparation for Everest. A self-trained climber, she learnt most of what she knew over the Internet or first-hand during the climbs. Goes to show the heights that just single-mindedness and a broadband connection can take you to: in this case, literally to the top of the world.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF RAHA MOHARRAK

Do your homework

Raha poses with the Saudi Arabian flag

Take the plunge

PHOTO COURTESYT: GARRETT MADISON

“Despite everything, I guess I wasn’t really prepared for how long it would take to reach the peak. Two months of solitude and agonizing cold! I thought I was going to lose my sanity,” Raha exclaims. “And I was more scared of freezing to death than falling off a cliff.” In the wee hours of May 18, she sat huddled in her tent, “uncharacteristically quiet and deep in contemplation. We were going to set out early to beat the traffic on the trail and it was pitch dark outside. I kept telling myself that after coming so far I wasn’t going to let fear take over,” she says remembering their slow march up to the summit at temperatures hovering around -45C. “And then the sun came out and lit everything up. It was like hope.” The final few meters went by in a daze. “Though I have been asked this question several times, I never know how to describe how I felt standing there at the peak. I simply couldn’t believe it,” she says simply.

On top of the world

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Shadow play at Jumeriah, Dubai

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What Raha didn’t anticipate when she stepped off the mountain was that, back at sea level the whole world was talking about her. “I had a moment of ‘Oh God, what did I do?’” she laughs.

And then came her own Wikipedia page. “That was hilarious! My friends said that I am now officially single forever.” That aside, she is clearly uncertain how to handle becoming an unexpected poster-child for women’s rights in the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia. She was just a girl who wanted to climb mountains. But Raha has only one thing to say on the subject: “If you want something, do not be afraid to say it. Saudi women are too scared to even tell their loved ones what’s on their mind. My family was initially against the whole idea, but now they are my biggest supporters. And I didn’t have to fight them or alienate them to go after my dreams.”

PHOTO COURTESY: JUDITH PHILIP

The reluctant activist