• Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala ready to #climblikeagirl  

The first-ever Sri Lankan to summit Mount Everest, Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala is back again with arguably an even tougher challenge. 

Jayanthi has set her eyes on climbing the Swiss peak Matterhorn. One of the most famous mountains in Europe at 4,478 metres (14,692 feet), the iconic peak straddles the border of Switzerland and Italy. 

Matterhorn is famous for two things; for its near-symmetric pyramidal peak and for being one of the most technically-challenging peaks in the Alps. The climb and descent on Matterhorn is done exclusively over rocks and ice, requiring outstanding fitness and technical experience on exposed terrain.

Having summited Everest, it is expected that Jayanthi, as a highly skilled mountaineer, would naturally look for the next big challenge. Speaking to The Sunday Morning Brunch, she shared the reasons for choosing to summit Matterhorn despite its reputation as an incredibly risky climb requiring immense skill and preparation. 

Why put yourself at risk? 

To a lay person, it seems ridiculous that a perfectly healthy adult would quite literally put their lives at risk to climb up a pyramid-shaped mountain, but those are the thoughts of the ordinary. To Jayanthi, it seems that it is only natural that she would put her skills to the test in this way.

Sharing her reasoning for choosing this journey, she simply said: “I want to push myself.” 

She added: “I want to do tougher and more complex climbs which utilise my diverse range of climbing skills, including mountaineering, rock climbing, and ice climbing. The route to the summit of Matterhorn involves a steep, rocky ridge at high altitude, where climbers are expected to draw on technical knowledge and practical experience in all these forms of climbing. As with Everest, I hope that my climb will encourage others, especially women and girls, to challenge the boundaries that are often set for us by society.”

Jayanthi shared that one of her primary goals through the entirety of her campaign was to encourage as many girls and women as possible to actually ‘climb like a girl’ – to internalise that doing something ‘like a girl’ was not an insult: “I summited Everest and I did it like a girl.”

She shared that as a young girl, she had been involved in numerous sports and she had often heard compliments that had been along the lines of “she runs well, not like a girl”. 

Jayanthi shared how she wished to change this narrative: “I was addressing a gathering of kids from Grades 11, 12, and 13 at a school in Kurunegala and some girls told me that they were so happy that I had become the first Sri Lankan to climb Everest, because it showed them that even girls can come first. Of course, while I explained that gender doesn’t matter because everyone can come first if they train hard, they quietly told me that their sports teacher had told them that boys were always going to come first and that girls would always be second.”

“Imagine what that does to kids who are just learning? It makes them feel weak; they are shown to be less than, affecting their self-esteem. However, we can change these sexist stereotypes,” Jayanthi said. 

Jayanthi shared that as a woman of over 40 years of age, she was faced with numerous obstacles and limitations, noting how she one day hoped to summit K2, which is the second-highest mountain on Earth. Popularly known as the Savage Mountain, it is the deadliest peak to attempt, with approximately one person dying on the mountain for every four who reach the summit. 

However while she recognises that it is likely that as time passes, there will be certain limitations on her body and the strain it can handle, her spirit remains excited and ready for a challenge. 

The upcoming climb

As for the upcoming climb, Jayanthi shared that while she was certainly scared, she was doing her best to prepare for the challenge. She hopes to rely on her 20 years of extensive experience in rock climbing and mountaineering in more than 10 countries and that the training she has successfully completed twice with the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) in India will suffice in completing her journey. 

Jayanthi is also a certified rock-climbing instructor of the Professional Climbing Guides Association in the US. She shared that over the past three years, she had conducted rock climbing workshops for women and girls in Sri Lanka during March in celebration of International Women’s Month. These workshops were conducted on a voluntary basis with the support of a core team of female rock climbers and in partnership with ClimbLanka – a locally owned and managed rock-climbing company based in Horana.

Concluding, she shared that she hoped for Sri Lankans to follow her journey as she updates on her social media. She looks forward to inspiring the next generation of women and girls who choose to take up rock climbing as a sport as well as those who choose to challenge societal norms and expand their horizons. 

Jayanthi leaves for Switzerland tomorrow (28) and will return to Sri Lanka on 15 September.