Remembering Major H. P. S. Ahluwalia: From Everest to the Founding of ISIC

On 6 November 2026, Major H. P. S. Ahluwalia’s 90th birth anniversary, ISIC remembers a man who stood on top of Mount Everest, lived the rest of his life in a wheelchair after a war injury, and turned that experience into a hospital for others. This is the story of what he achieved, and of how ISIC continues his vision today.

“Life is all about conquering the other summit - the summit of mind.”

• Major H. P. S. Ahluwalia

The summit of 1965

Hari Pal Singh Ahluwalia, born on 6 November 1936, grew up in Shimla and discovered rock climbing as a student in Mussoorie. His love of the mountains took him across Garhwal, Sikkim, Nepal and Ladakh. He joined the Indian Army in 1958, trained at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling, and became part of the 1965 Indian Everest expedition.

On 29 May 1965, exactly twelve years after Hillary and Tenzing’s first ascent, he stood on top of Mount Everest with H. C. S. Rawat and Phu Dorjee Sherpa, in the expedition’s fourth and final successful summit attempt. The expedition put nine climbers on the summit and became India’s first successful ascent of the mountain.

From injury to a vision

Only a few months after Everest, during the Indo-Pak War of 1965, a gunshot wound to the neck left him paralysed below the waist and confined to a wheelchair. He travelled to the United Kingdom for five months of intensive rehabilitation. It did not reverse his condition, but it changed how he saw care, and the lack of specialised spinal injury treatment in India stayed with him.

His dream was a hospital that would bring surgery, rehabilitation, research and education together, with every treatment available under one roof and specialised care within reach even of the poorest.

Building ISIC

With the support of his friends, he set up the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, in collaboration with the Government of Italy through San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, and with support from the Government of India. It was built on a simple principle: no one is turned away for lack of funds. He served as its Chairman, and three decades on, ISIC has grown into ISIC Multispeciality Hospital, still rooted in his legacy.

Championing people with disabilities

His own experience as a patient shaped his work for others. He chaired the Rehabilitation Council of India, the statutory body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, where he promoted conquering disability across the country, and he chaired the Special Ability Trust, which supports young achievers with disabilities through fellowships and scholarships. The President of India conferred on him the National Award for Best Work in the Field of Disability.

A life in the mountains

He never stepped away from mountaineering. Major Ahluwalia served as President of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation and of the Delhi Mountaineering Association, and in 2009 he received the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award for Lifetime Achievement.

The writer

He wrote about the mountains and the mind in books including Higher Than Everest, his memoir, along with Eternal Himalaya, Beyond the Himalayas and Tracing Marco Polo’s Journey. His chapter The Summit Within is part of the NCERT Class 8 English textbook, so school children across India have met him through his own words.

His achievements were recognized with the Arjuna Award in 1965, and with the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan, two of India’s national civilian honours.

How ISIC honours his legacy

On the campus he built, ISIC pays tribute to Major Ahluwalia with a museum that preserves the story of his courage and his calling for generations to come. And 2025, which marked 60 years since his Everest ascent, brought a new tradition: every year, five ISIC colleagues now trek to Everest Base Camp in his name.

First staff trek to Everest Base Camp

On 1 October 2025, ISIC flagged off its first employee trek to Everest Base Camp in tribute to Major Ahluwalia. Five colleagues made the journey: Dr. Ankur Nanda, Dr. Nikhil Guliyani, Amarjit Kaur, Deepu Vijay and Dheeraj, representing doctors, nursing staff and general duty support. They were chosen through a multi-phase selection that valued resilience, teamwork and mental grit as much as fitness, and they trained together for 60 days with fitness sessions, mental conditioning and team activities.

A second team reaches Base Camp

On 11 October 2026, a second team of five reached Everest Base Camp, at 5,364 metres and at the foot of the mountain Major Ahluwalia summited after days of trekking. The team had been flagged off in the presence of Mrs. Bholi Ahluwalia and the ISIC family.

The Everest Base Camp trek has since become an annual programme for ISIC colleagues.

The journey continues...

On his 90th birth anniversary, ISIC remembers Major Ahluwalia not only in words but in the care it gives every day, and in the colleagues who take on the Himalayas each year with teamwork and perseverance, in the mountains he loved.

“The internal summits are, perhaps, higher than Everest.”

• Major H. P. S. Ahluwalia, The Summit Within