(Seychelles News Agency) - Two Seychellois — Norman and Cheyenne de Silva — have trekked to the south base camp of Mount Everest. The father and daughter took 13 days to make the hike and reached the camp on May 31.

The two paid a courtesy call to President Danny Faure at State House on Saturday where Faure congratulated the team on their achievement.

Cheyenne is the first woman from the island nation to reach the camp whilst Norman is the second Seychellois man. “I believe an Allen Bonelamne – currently leaving in France - did make it to the base camp back in 2012. But I am very proud of what we accomplished,” said Norman. The two Seychellois made it to the Nepalese South Basecamp which is at an altitude of 5,364 metres.

Mount Everest, situated in the Himalayas in Nepal, is the highest mountain in the world. Standing at 8,848 meters, it attracts thousands of climbers from all over the world every year. It has two base camps, one on the Nepalese side and the other the north camp facing Tibet.

New Zealander Edmund Hilary and his Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzin Norgay became the first climber to reach the peak in May 1953. Mount Everest has had a long history of victims, with reports of over 300 deaths, three already this year. 

Father and daughter decided to take on the challenge of Everest to inspire others. (State House) Photo License: CC-BY

Norman and Cheyenne, who reside in California, said that each year they take time to travel together. “We had not seen each other for 8 months as Cheyenne was away at college. Normally we come to Seychelles together but this time we wanted something different. I wanted to go to Madagascar as this is a dream but because of the plague we decided against it,” said Norman.

Everest then became a plan and the two started to prepare for the challenge. “We prepared ourselves physically and had to take care of logistics as well as equipment,” explained Norman.

Before doing the actual trek the pair had to adapt to the area, done with the help of a Sherpa – a member of an ethnic group of the most mountainous area of Nepal.

“I was very excited to reach the base camp but at the same time exhausted as well because we had taken 13 days to do it. This included treks of sometimes up to 10 hours. But at the end, the training paid off and we made it,” said Cheyenne.

According to Norman both he and Cheyenne decided to take on the challenge of Everest. “We wanted to inspire others in taking bold challenges as well as testing our limitations as human beings,” said Norman.

The father and daughter said, “getting acclimated was the biggest challenge as the air gets thinner the higher one climbs.” But with the right preparation, they made it.

Faure said that “what the pair has accomplished is an achievement for all Seychellois. And that this can be an inspiration for all Seychellois to take bold challenges. And not to be afraid to challenge themselves.”

The president said that “Cheyenne being the first woman to reach the base camp should be an inspiration to the younger generation of the island nation.”

Norman De Silva is well known to local sports, having been part of the Seychelles delegations at the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games in Moscow, in the now defunct Soviet Union and Los Angeles in the United States of America as an official.

Norman also held the post of chairman of the Seychelles Basketball Federation from 1977-1984 and he was one of the founding members of the Seychelles National Olympic Committee (SNOC) which came into existence in 1979. SNOC’s name has since changed to the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (SOCGA).

Locally, De Silva had been climbing around the country, reaching the three peaks of ‘Trois Frères’ mountain on Mahe, the main island of Seychelles – a group of islands in the western Indian Ocean.