Transforming the lives of young girls

Shailee Basnet, an Everest summiteer, is the leader of the 'Seven Summits Women Team', world's first female group to climb the highest mountain in each continent. She travels internationally as a motivational speaker taking audiences on a virtual journey of the Himalayas, sharing some hard-earned insights.

Shailee is also a stand-up comic. She participated in Everest to Empowerment, an interactive session in Hyderabad recently.

She spoke to 150 Young FICCI Ladies Organisation (YFLO) members about her experiences climbing some of the tallest mountains on the earth, the challenges she and her teammates faced, and the lessons they learned.

Start from where you are, work on yourself, keep your ego in check if you have bigger vision and together we reach higher are the few lessons Shailee learnt from her ascents of various mountains across the world.

Being on with the nature was the most beautiful thing of scaling Mount Everest. It was the biggest blessing, Shailee shared.

Shailee started her journey from the ascent of Mt Everest in May 2008. She has since been the Coordinator of 'Seven Summits Women Team', first women team in the world to climb the 7 summits. She leads special leadership treks and spiritual trips in the blissful Himalayan region.

She and her team's non-profit GIA has been supporting 8 schools in Nepal following the 2015 Earthquake. GIA also provides special training to young survivors of women trafficking with a goal to provide them holistic empowerment.

She is a most sought after speaker, takes audiences on a virtual journey of the mountains sharing life lessons on motivation, leadership, team work and more. She loves to make others laugh.

She is a bilingual comic who performs Stand-Up comedy in Nepal and the USA. She also pursues her career as a journalist writing about youth and social issues. She is still very much in love with the craft of writing.

Between climbing different peaks, Basnet accomplished other goals such as becoming a motivational speaker and stand-up comedian. The 36-year-old Basnet gives talks at conventions, seminars, educational institutions all over the world.

When Basnet heard about the First Inclusive Women Sagarmatha Expedition, an all-Nepali female expedition to climb Mount Everest, she was intrigued. At first, though, her inexperience in sports caused her to doubt whether she should join.

"I asked myself whether I was qualified even to go near a mountain," she jokes. Fortunately, the expedition was the culmination of a nearly yearlong program that included 45 days of intense mountaineering training in the Himalayas. "Once I found that out, I was in," Basnet says. "I went for that training and never looked back."

"Scaling mountains made me stronger physically and mentally, conquering the anxiety of a stage performance takes a different kind of courage altogether."

It is her first visit to the city, she says "I was dying to eat Hyderabadi Biryani. I tasted it yesterday night at the hotel where I am staying. Hyderabad is a nice city. I am coming here again on February 20th to address at Women Congress"

She says, "Yes, scaling Mount Everest has become easy because of better Human Resource's, technology, weather predictions. But that didn't stop people from dying. People are still dying. Everest still remains the highest peak in the world.

This has not changed. Mountaineering is a simple game of lungs and legs. The success depends on how you train and manage these two organs "

Traffic on Everest is not new. It used to be there 12 years back too when I scaled it. What is changed now is there are cameras everywhere and the photos of the traffic jams are shared on Social Media, which was not the case in the past she shared.

I am planning to author my first book this year. It will be "7 Summits—7 Challenges and 7 Lessons". I am looking for a good international publisher. The book will be completed this year, she shared.

She considered herself privileged to get good education but was not happy about how female students were barred from sports and physical exercise. Speking about her inspiration she says "Junko Tabei was the first woman to summit Mt. Everest, the world's highest peak, in 1975.

She is my inspiration. My life ambition is to transform the lives of young girls who are rescued from flesh trade. We would like to help them get their dignified life."