Mountaineer doctor awed by Himalayas and inspired to help others by qualifying as high-altitude medic
Intensive care doctor in Hong Kong who sees patients close to death and regretting things they haven’t done is determined to live life to the fullest, and test her limits, on peaks of the Himalayas
Ask high-altitude mountaineers why they risk frostbite and death in pursuit of a hobby, and each will offer different reasons. In the case of Hong Kong doctor Harmony To, she climbs mountains to test her limits, and so that she leaves this world with no regrets – unlike the patients near death she treats in intensive care who “chickened out on trips when they were young”.
Most of all, she seeks experiences far removed from daily life.
To doesn’t see herself as a thrill seeker, but understands that some climbers are “totally addicted to the adrenaline rush and thrill of it all” – people like Hong Kong mountain guide John Tsang, who led To and her companions on a climb to a 6,119-metre summit in Nepal in April this year.
During that climb, To and her party met a group of Indians who had recently conquered Mount Everest.
She asked one of the expedition members, a native of Darjeeling in the foothills of the Himalayas, why he did it. He regaled her with his past adventures, and explained how Everest was near his hometown so he could not pass up the opportunity.