Issue 7
Qataris Abroad
FAHAD
BADAR
Failure is not
an option
What do you do when you reach the summit of
Everest in the middle of the night, but you’re out of
oxygen? And your regulators, including the spare,
have been ruined beyond repair by the -40°C cold?
I
t is in these moments that the years of mental, doing this, otherwise giving up is all too easy. Despite
physical and emotional preparation are the everything, it’s important to really try and enjoy it.”
difference between life and death. Failure is not
an option.
The only times he struggled to find enjoyment were
occasional dark moments when the summit felt out
Fahad Badar’s manner is intense but calm as he of reach. “I wanted to reach the summit no matter
recounts this experience from his office at the what,” he continues. “At a time when you cannot
Commercial Bank of Qatar. We are worlds away from breathe, your body is aching from pain, and you are
the cold darkness of Earth’s highest peak, which freezing, still you are pushing yourself to climb. It’s
Fahad returned from summitting in May of last year an emotional experience that I don’t think you can
after a guide from another expedition was mercifully reflect in any other sport.”
able to lend him a spare regulator.
What could have inspired this senior banker to
Despite the peril, you get the sense he was just as invest so much energy, resources and risk into one
composed then as he is now. of mountaineering’s ultimate challenges? “I was
“In the mountains, everything tries to kill you,” Fahad
says. “You just have to know in your mind why you’re
not seeking the attention”, he emphasises. “Sure, it
was an incentive [to be the second Qatari to climb
Everest], but not the only thing.”
Fahad Badar
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