India, June 23 -- In the dead of night, while descending the treacherous Khumbu Icefall after summiting Mount Everest, Chennai-based fertility specialist Dr Priya Selvaraj fell into a crevasse. What saved her was a safety rope, her guide's instructions, and the calm instincts of a doctor used to high-stakes moments. At 52, the granddaughter of the late legendary Tamil actor Gemini Ganesan has now made history as the only known Indian woman above 50 to have climbed two 8,000-metre peaks within seven months: Manaslu in September 2025 and Everest last month. "Had I not listened and paid attention to my guide, and been overconfident thinking, 'I can always fix this later, let me do the jump first', I wouldn't be alive to tell this story," she shares, adding, "Being at Everest feels like a film. The higher I climbed, my childhood memories came to me - what I ate, how I was raised, why I gave up childhood foods... The question of why, why, why came back. Now, I'm revisiting and rethinking my life and the way it was when my grandparents and dad were around. I've been a vegan for the last 16 years, but this expedition might turn that around." For Dr Selvaraj, mountaineering began as a way to process grief after losing her father SFV Selvaraj to Covid-19. "I sought refuge in trekking," she says, adding that the discipline has since become a way of life. "I am past 50 so I have to be at the peak of my fitness. It is 50 minutes to an hour of training every day. I go running sometimes to the beach at 4.30am and then my trainer completes my training by 9.30am. By 10am or 10.30am, I'm at work." Back to Chennai now, the filmi plot of her survival is still sinking in. "Now that I am home, my three children are saying, 'We don't think you should go on any more expeditions,' and my medical fraternity friends are saying, 'After Everest, what is there?'" She dons a knowing smile and makes it clear that mountaineering is a chapter far from closed: "The next expedition is a surprise."...