Nungshi and Tashi Malik were barely 21 years old when they earned the title of becoming the first female twins to summit Mt. Everest in 2013. In a span of just two years, they became the World’s first twins and siblings (and the only South Asians) to complete the “Explorers Grand Slam”.
The Explorers Grand Slam involved climbing the highest mountain peaks in each of the seven continents and reaching the North and South poles - their polar expedition was on skies and cross country skiing is known to be one of the most gruelling sporting challenges. They were also the first female twins to climb Mt. Cook (Aoraki), New Zealand’s highest peak, and an unexplored 21,000 ft. high virgin peak in the Indian Himalayas.
In 2019, Nash and Tash formed and successfully led team Khukuri Warriors in Amazon’s World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji 2020. It is the ultimate expedition race in which teams race non-stop, 24 hours a day, covering a distance of 671 km in 11 days across hundreds of miles of rugged backcountry terrain complete with mountains, jungles and oceans. They were the only South Asians amongst 66 experienced and hardened competing teams from 30 countries. This race is featured on Amazon Prime with Bear Grylls as the Host - a “must watch” for adventure sport lovers!
Nash and Tash are fellows of the Royal Geographical Society in London. They are qualified mountaineering instructors and graduates in sport and exercise from New Zealand. They also won India’s highest adventure award, the prestigious ‘Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award 2015’. On 23 Oct 2016, they were conferred the ‘2016 Leif Erikson Young Explorers Award’ in Iceland given by the President of Iceland. Most recently they were conferred India’s highest women empowerment award ‘Nari Shakti’ by the president of India.Together they have founded India’s first Outdoor Leadership School to build lifeskill through the great outdoors, especially among girls.
Currently based in NZ on special work visa under Edmund Hillary Fellowship, with the purpose of finding and building solutions to some of our toughest challenges for global impact.
This year, Nash married a ‘Kiwi-Indian’ from Invercargill! This is where they will mostly be based for their time in Aotearoa.
Talking Points
Thrive amidst life’s challenges
We humans are hardwired for hope and for a good life. We love to remain in the illusion that somehow, we will be insulated from tragedies and disasters that happen around us. Despite our hopes and prayers when life throws unexpected curveballs at us, we are caught unprepared, unskilled, unwilling or incapable to face them. The situation appears overwhelming. The common response of many is to get into survival mode. We get trapped in a vicious ‘defensive’ cycle devoid of hope, creativity and innovation that may seriously impact our health and our personal and professional life, often with disastrous consequences. Education system and our parents mostly enable us for good careers and professional success, much lesser for dealing with adversity and failure. Our high-risk adventures have given us some of the best lessons in the art of thriving amidst modern life’s rough and tumble and to seek ever new challenges.
Thrive amidst life’s challenges
Dream Big
What you think you become. Whether in personal or in professional life, only big dreams have the power to move our mind and spirit and push our whole world forward. In their pursuit, we learn to discover and draw on our latent strengths and resources. While goal realization is a big satisfaction, the process of reaching it is all rewarding. What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. All successful people have used the same formula ‘big dreams backed by commitment and massive determined action. We are all born free and equal in dignity and rights, our Dreams should not be determined by our gender, religion, ethnicity or any other such criteria. Our dream of scaling Mt Everest eventually led to successful summit at the age of 21 that enabled us to further dream bigger and bolder. By age 23 we completed the coveted Explorers Grand Slam. Such is the power of big dreams.
Dream Big
Pursue Excellence
Don’t chase money, chase excellence. Money will follow. Pursuing excellence requires a mindset that is biased towards action. It is the pursuit of getting better. It is not about what we acquire but what we become in the process.Pursue Excellence
When we tried mobilizing funds for climbing Mt Everest, we just didn’t get any sponsors because there was no prior mountaineering accomplishment. This changed dramatically after our Everest summit. This is true in all spheres. In fact, we have learned not to chase success but to chase our dreams. In doing so, we can achieve excellence, and success will follow. If our dreams align with our life’s values and purpose then they will endure all the trails and tribulations on the way. Steve Jobs aptly observed ‘Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life’’. Our adventure dreams and accomplishments on path less trodden will inspire audience to commit to themselves and the process of building purpose, focus, and discipline every day. They will also help develop resilience to face new challenges-and find inspiration for the long haul.
