Two Sri Lankan mountaineers Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala and Johann Peries are on the final leg of their attempt in summiting Mt. Everest, the highest mountain in the world, thereby becoming the first Sri Lankans to do so.

They will begin their final ascend, leaving from Everest Base Camp on 16 May and are due to summit on 21 May.

Kuru-Utumpala and Peiris have individually and as a team successfully completed some of the world’s most challenging treks and almost all key peaks in Sri Lanka.

The duo has been training in the Himalayas since early April for their attempt at Mount Everest. They have spent the past month on Mt. Everest completing strenuous training at extreme high altitudes, including trekking up and down between Base Camp and three camps which are located at higher altitudes. This has involved a number of climbs across the extremely treacherous Khumbu Icefall, a continually shifting glacier, and ice climbing up the arduous, vertical Lhotse Face – an ice wall just below Camp 3. In climbing to Camp 3 (7,200m / 23,625ft) Jayanthi and Johann have both reached the highest altitude they have ever trekked to.

This season at least 289 climbers and Sherpas will be attempting the summit. All climbers are currently waiting for a weather window to enable the summit attempts to begin.  Fatal avalanches in 2014 and 2015 resulted in no one summiting either year.

Jayanthi and Johann have joined with International Mountain Guides, a well-respected mountaineering company with over 30 years of experience guiding teams to the top of Everest. They have their eyes set firmly on the next target: The Summit. Johann says “I have a great sense of achievement for what we have already done but I am eagerly awaiting the next step, the final push to the summit.” Jayanthi adds, “Our acclimatization rotations were successful, although they were the toughest things we’ve both ever done. I’m now looking forward to taking the Sri Lankan flag and waving it from the highest point in the world together with Johann”.