Senior Congress MLA Suresh Kumar Routray’s son, Sidharth Routray, returned to the state on Sunday after scaling Mount Everest. He conquered the world’s highest peak on May 15.

“It’s a beautiful experience. When I reached the top of Mount Everest (8848.86 m) at 4.15 AM, the sky was clear. I waited for nearly one hour to see the first rays of the Sun kissing the peak. There was ice all around and the entire area dazzled in sunlight. It’s awesome. Never will I forget the thrilling experience that I enjoyed for almost one hour and fifteen minutes on the peak,” the 48-year-old ace mountaineer told The Telegraph, who works as director in a digital marketing company in California.

“Its almost 15-years of training that finally paid off. The consistent perseverance and willingness to excel have finally yielded the result. After reaching the summit, I took out the oxygen mask and enjoyed each moment at the peak. The moment would never come again,” he said, adding that he got the inspiration to take up mountaineering during his stint at the National Defence Academy. “I spent three years in the NDA. The training in the NDA has shaped my body and mind,” Routray said.

He started his journey to scale Mount Everest on March 28. “On April 25, I suffered from a fever and became weak. I had to fly back to the hospital in Kathmandu in Nepal for treatment. Within three days, I was completely cured. Again I went back and resumed my expedition. I was determined to reach the peak. It was a do-or-die situation for me. It took me three days to return to the base camp from the peak during my return journey.”

During his entire journey, Routray only took rice and dal. “As I was carrying the Jagannath flag, I skipped non-veg foods.”

At the summit, Routray also remembered his friends Priye Sharma, Sandeep Mahapatra, Mukesh Chaurasia (who all died during their service in the army), and Kalpana Das, the first Odia girl to scale Mount Everest. Kalpana Das had earlier scaled the summit in 2008 but later in 2019, she went again on an expedition. She scaled the peak but died on her way back from the summit.

Rourtay has spent nearly Rs 35 lakh for the expedition. “This includes the Nepal government’s fees, the expedition company’s fees, and the sherpa’s expenditures.”
On being asked how he could get such a long leave from his company for the expedition, he said, “I got the leave on loss of pay. Now I would join and start work from home,” Routray said.

Soon after his return, Suresh Routray distributed sweets on the success of his son and announced that he would contest for the Lok Sabha in the next election. However, the ace mountaineer said, “It’s too early to take a call on the issue. Election is still two years away,” he said.