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       THEY brought pride and joy to Malaysia when they planted, literally, the country’s symbol on the world’s highest mountain.

       M. Magendran and N. Mohanadas were the first Malaysians to conquer Mount Everest. Upon scaling the 8,848m-high peak on May 23, 1997, they placed the Jalur Gemilang there.

       Both men remained on the summit for about 45 minutes before heading back down.

       “On the day that the Malaysian team was to finally reach the summit, I came in early to the newsroom and switched on the TV (to follow the broadcast),” recalled senior news editor Sim Leoi Leoi, who had chronicled the journey of the Everest team from the start till their triumph in reaching the peak.

       She remembers clearly that historic Friday.

       “Malaysia’s ascent had seen some setbacks the days before but by noon, when it became clear that Magendran and Mohanadas would finally reach the peak, there was excitement in the newsroom.

       “We could only get the duo on the phone later that night. They sounded excited! But RTM managed to beam that moment from the base camp right back to Malaysia,” Sim recalled.

       Reporters are often told to keep their copy short but on that day, Sim got a different instruction from her editor.

       “For the first time, I was told to write as long as I could. And that was how I ended up covering a part of Malaysia’s history – from the newsroom, thousands of kilometres away,” she said.

       Prior to Sim’s reporting of the ascent, she said The Star had assembled a team that was supposed to do the coverage of Malaysia’s Everest adventure from the base camp in Nepal and while they climbed up there.

       “I was supposed to only give the daily updates by calling the Malaysian team via the telephone. Unfortunately, our team was affected by severe altitude sickness. In the end, our daily updates via the telephone became the main coverage.

       “It fell on me, a rookie reporter then, to make sure that we called the team every day at around 4pm to 5pm,” she said.

       Unlike the much-improved telecommunications these days, Sim spoke of how she always had to ask the operator to get connected to Nepal via Telekom then.

       “Surprisingly, the audio was rather good and I’m always grateful to the Malaysian team members for having the time to handle a pesky reporter thousands of kilometres away, sometimes just asking them about the weather,” she said.

       The success of Magendran and his buddy Mohanadas was relayed through walkie-talkie to the Malaysia Everest expedition team members at the base camp.

       Their triumph marked the end of a 59- day expedition which was made more difficult by treacherous weather conditions.

       Previous news reports quoted Mohanadas as saying that when he saw Magendran waiting for him at the summit, his first instinct was to rush towards his mate to celebrate the moment, but because of the altitude and the exhaustion, he said he could not even “run 10 feet”.

       Right after Magendran planted the Malaysian flag, he began to weep.

       “It was such a joyful, glorious moment for us that Mohanadas and I just stood there on the summit and shed tears,” he was quoted as saying.

       As for Mohanadas, he said in subsequent reports that climbing started out just as an outdoor hobby for him. It was never in his dream to climb Everest as he was not athletic at school.

       Magendran was 33 then while his buddy Mohanadas was 36 at the time.

       Both men, who have since been awarded the Datukship, went through a gruelling programme before their climb.

       But their ultimate achievement paved the way for other Malaysians to believe in themselves.

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