PVLF 2026

Interview with Sauraj Jhingan and Samir Patham, Authors of “What's Your Everest? A Path to Passion and Purpose”

An unfiltered tale of grit, failure, and resilience—What's Your Everest? reveals that true success lies not in summits, but in the courage to keep going.
on Jul 31, 2025

Frontlist: "What's Your Everest?" documents not just your summit, but the soul-crushing failures before it. As debut authors, did you worry that readers might only look for the success story and miss the essence of resilience?

Sauraj: There are enough self-help books out there which talk about the mantra of success, we didn’t want to put another success story out there. We just wanted to focus on telling our story to the readers and let them decide and assess what they would like to take away from the book. I think the soul of the book is about being resilient, and it’s hard to miss it. When we started writing our book, we didn’t focus on setbacks or success, we just poured our hearts out and let the writing flow.

Frontlist: In an age of curated success and Instagramable wins, your book bravely embraces raw vulnerability and defeat. Was this honesty a risk you were willing to take from the start?

Sauraj: When we started writing this book, we just wanted to present the readers with our story in the most raw and vulnerable form. These are mountaineering and life experiences that have shaped Samir, me, and Adventure Pulse, and we are happy to bring the story and experiences to life. There are parts of our story which definitely talk about setbacks at various stages, but it also talks about success in the end, and it's on the readers what they want to take away from this book. We honestly didn’t think that putting our story out there in the most raw form would be a risk; on the contrary, we feel it’s the strength of the book, coz these are the moments that help us connect with the readers and would help them trust us as authors and storytellers. Our journey is far from curated success and Instagrammable wins; it’s a stark reminder that in a world where most people seek instant gratification, success can take time and doesn’t come easy.

Frontlist: Most self-help narratives offer formulas. Yours offers discomfort, uncertainty, and grit. Do you think the publishing world underestimates the value of experiential storytelling from non-writers?

Samir: I'm not sure if it's about underestimation, but I do think there's been a shift in how stories are consumed today. Growing up, I was deeply inspired by books like Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer and Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett. These were adventurers who, through practice and retelling, became professional writers—they were raw, real accounts by people who had lived those experiences. Closer to home, someone like Harish Kapadia was a phenomenal storyteller, chronicling his climbs across the Himalayas not with polish, but with passion and perspective. Experiential storytelling has always had a place in the publishing world. In fact, at one point, it was the dominant genre—firsthand narratives of explorers, adventurers, and survivors. Maybe in today’s era of formulas and frameworks, it's taken a bit of a backseat. But I believe there's still a deep hunger for authenticity—for stories that don’t just tell you what to do, but show you what it’s like to live through something. And that’s where discomfort, uncertainty, and grit become far more powerful than any self-help formula.

Frontlist: You both left high-paying corporate careers to chase something uncertain. Do you see your book as a guide for people looking to escape 'safe' lives in search of passion?

Sauraj: We left our comfortable jobs to pursue our passion, and sure enough, it didn’t come easy in the first few years. It was hard to convince family and friends that this is the path we want to take, as usually this is the road less traveled and their concerns were probably valid at that point. There was a series of setbacks and defeats in the early years, and the road to success was long and hard. The book is definitely not a guide for people looking to escape the safe lives in search of passion, but we hope it will serve as an inspiration for those searching this path.

Frontlist: The book blends memoir, adventure, and reflection. How did you approach structuring such an unpredictable narrative as first-time authors?

Samir: To be honest, we didn’t set out to blend styles or follow a particular structure. In the beginning, it was just about putting the experience down on paper—capturing the climb, the challenges, and the journey as vividly as we remembered it. What started out as a straightforward adventure narrative naturally began to take the shape of a memoir. As we moved into the editing phase, we started noticing moments that called for deeper reflection—moments that weren’t just about the mountain, but about what it was teaching us. That’s when the tone shifted slightly. The reflections weren’t planned; they emerged from revisiting the experience with some distance. In a way, the structure revealed itself to us through the process. So, while the narrative may feel layered now, it was really just an honest attempt to tell the story as it unfolded, and then to make sense of it afterward.

Frontlist: Looking back, what part of the book do you think deserved more attention or conversation than it has received so far?

Samir: I think it’s still a little early to fully answer that. The book has only just been launched, and readers are now beginning to engage with it. We’re really looking forward to hearing their thoughts and feedback—that’s when we’ll truly start to understand which parts resonated and which might have flown under the radar. That said, if I reflect on it personally, the sheer scope of the story meant some aspects naturally got less space than others. We were trying to capture not just one, but three Everest expeditions, along with the broader journey of our mountaineering lives. There were failed summit attempts, quieter personal struggles, and even moments of joy on other lesser-known peaks that we had to condense or leave out. In a way, that’s the beauty of storytelling—it leaves you with more to tell. And depending on how readers respond, those untouched threads may just become the heart of our next adventure narrative.

Frontlist: Sauraj, your mountaineering experiences are intense, but what part of writing What's Your Everest? forced you to confront a more personal inner Everest, one you hadn’t anticipated?

Sauraj: A lot of our mountaineering experiences taught us some very hard-hitting life lessons. These experiences were intense and even life-threatening at some point. We failed, faced disappointments, lost friends, fellow climbers, and Sherpas on these big mountains over the years. For me personally, to go back to these moments, recall them, and dig deep to be able to present them to the readers as they were, was the hard part. It’s not easy to be vulnerable and pour your heart out. Even though it was difficult, we really wanted to connect with the readers and wanted the emotions to be as raw as possible, which is exactly what we have done in the book. When we initially started writing the book, I didn’t think it would be that difficult, but there were moments I had to re-live the trauma to be able to pen it down.

Frontlist: Samir, you’ve always exuded clarity of purpose in your talks and adventures. Was it harder for you to walk away from the Everest summit just 900 meters away, or to put that heartbreak into words in your debut book?

Samir: That’s a tough one—because both were incredibly difficult in different ways. Walking away from the summit of Everest in 2017, just 900 meters from the top, was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. You spend years preparing, dreaming, sacrificing—and then you're faced with the choice to let it go for reasons that logic dictates but your heart resists. It was painful. Quietly devastating.

But writing about that heartbreak was just as hard—if not harder. It forced me to relive the fear, the shame, and the quiet self-doubt that crept in during those dark moments. That was truly a defining moment even in the friendship that Sauraj and I share, which was put to an ultimate test. Putting that into words meant confronting emotions and relationships which you often want to just move past. But it also became an act of healing. The page became a place to process what I couldn’t say out loud back then.

Looking back now, I think the harder thing wasn’t turning around. It was coming back. To try again. And then again. That, to me, is the real definition of passion—not just chasing a dream, but being willing to break for it, bleed for it, and still return with your whole heart. If it wasn’t for Sauraj, I would never have had the courage to come back in 2018. People often ask what Everest teaches you. For me, it’s this: success is not the summit. It’s the resilience to keep walking, even when the summit disappears from view. That’s the lesson I hope stays with the reader long after the last page.