Nungshi and Tashi Malik on conquering the summits, the two poles and cheating death

Tashi and Nungshi Malik completed the Grand Slam Explorers, covering the seven highest peaks on the planet and the two poles. But what is it like to undertake an expedition where a wrong move can mean death?

May 19, 2013:
On their way from Camp 3 to Camp 4 on Mount Everest, Tashi and Nungshi Malik passed their first body. The dead climber was on Tashi's side, as if napping in the snow, his head half covered in the hood of his parka. They had heard that bodies of those who could not descend in time, who made a crucial mistake or simply suffered bad luck, remain littered across Everest's treacherous path.

But seeing a dead body up-close was completely different for the 23-year-old twins. They tried to rationalize it but couldn't. It could have been one of them! Was this a grim warning, both wondered. They trod on, one step at a time, but the image of the dead man kept flashing in their minds throughout the journey to the peak of Mount Everest.

April 21, 2015:
The Dehradun-based girls completed the Explorers Grand Slam, by skiing to the North Pole. The Slam is a challenge to reach the North and South Pole, and to climb the Seven Summits, the highest peaks in each continent – a feat completed by fewer than 50 people in the world.