It was a full moon night when they started. But it was not by the light of the silvery moon that they come around the mountains in Ladakh in the mighty Himalayas, six riders on their TVS Fiero FX 150 cc bikes. "We had kick started exactly at midnight. But the night was cloudy. At around 1.30 a.m. it started snowing. You are on a motorbike, the terrain is tough, the wind is hitting you, it’s chilly and your vision is blurred because of the snowfall! And there is always the danger of skidding,” describes Bombay’s Burgess Cooper. "We (the six riders) were aiming to traverse, in a time span of 24 hours on motorbikes, the four highest mountain passes in the world — Marsimik La (18,652 ft) Khardung La (18,380 ft), Tanglang La (17,582 ft) and Chang La (17,350 ft), which are the first, second, third and fourth highest passes in the world!” states older brother Sarosh.
It was a feat never attempted before by anyone, anywhere in the world. The "TVS Fiero FX - Out-There Adventurers World Record Challenge” traveled the 638 km stretch from Leh on July 31 last year in 23 hours and 25 minutes. The entire expedition was filmed and presented as documentary evidence to the Limca Book of Records which has recognized the feat. "The Guinness Book of Records does not have a category into which this can be slotted. They say they will have to create a new category. They are evaluating it, but it will take some time,” relates Sarosh. An hour long documentary on the event was especially made for 10 Sports and aired frequently.
"When we hugged each other at Marsimik La, we were on top of the world, literally, apart from those climbing Mount Everest or some other peak! Marsimik La is just 700 ft short of the summit of Mount Kiliminjaro, the highest point in the African continent. Only the two American continents, apart from the Himalayas, have points above the altitudes traveled by the team during the Challenge,” declares 37-year-old Sarosh. That was when "it hit us” that not only will two brothers find their way into the record books, but it will be two Parsi brothers! "The most pleasurable part is having achieved this with my brother. We are very close,” says 30-year-old Burgess who works as an IT (Information Technology) security specialist in Bombay, while Sarosh is in sales with Perks Engineering, also in Bombay though he travels extensively.
18,000 ft in Ladakh on TVS Fieros; Sarosh (top right) and Burgess Cooper:
"We are 100 percent city people,” chuckles Sarosh, but both are great motorcycling enthusiasts and lovers of the outdoors and adventure. "We do lots of enthusiastic, some say crazy stuff!” laughs Burgess. It was the love of adventure that saw them join, at short notice, when their cousin Colonel Firdosh Mehta rang up to express his deep disappointment at not being able to participate in a world record breaking attempt due to an urgent medical problem. Sarosh is a certified advanced skier and certified scuba diver. He has done paragliding, kayaking and river rafting and had even climbed up to Everest base camp (17,900 ft) after doing his basic mountaineering course at the reputed Nehru Institute of Mountaineering. Burgess loves water sports — kayaking in the sea, wind surfing, savoring nature.
Conquering Marsimik La was the toughest part of the expedition. "We took around six and a half hours to do a stretch of 40 km. There is no road there. It is just a direction defined by the Indian Army which uses it to carry front line supplies near the China border. This feat would not have been possible without total support from the army. Khardung La, from where you go on to the famous Siachen Glacier, has the highest motor able road in the world. By motorable I mean, ‘black-topped’ or tarred road,” Sarosh points out. In addition to the four highest passes, the team’s journey also took them across three other 15,000 + ft passes. The topography of Ladakh is quite different, it is above the tree line and very rugged, Sarosh paints the picture.
The team: biking into the Limca Book of Records
"At around 16,000 ft we came upon Pangang Tso — the largest salt water lake in Asia at that altitude! It is around 130 km long, and 10 km wide. One third of it is in India, two-thirds in China (Tibet). The natural beauty along the route just has to be experienced. No photo can capture it, you have to live the moment, experience every turn, every bend, every banking,” Burgess bubbles with excitement as he recalls the moments. Was there anxiety or apprehension, we query. "Of course,” he replies. "There is always some apprehension of the unknown, of the long driving hours, high altitude sickness as well as the possibility of landslides or avalanches.”
With altitudes of 18,000 ft considered the beginning of the ‘death zone,’ any mishap or prolonged exposure to the elements (which in some cases can be mere hours) means slipping into a coma and even death. "It is good to have anxiety, so that you’re more cautious. There’s a very fine line between risk and pleasure and it keeps getting extended! But nothing is worth not being there for your kids,” asserts Burgess whose second child was but a four-month-old infant at the time of the expedition. His wife Dilkhush as well as Sarosh’s wife Shiraz have always been absolutely supportive. "Do what you have to do,” they maintain. Father Sam, who was earlier in the navy on a 10-year commission, has always been an ‘outdoors’ supporter. Mother Falak did of course worry and pray and "the whole family was on cloud nine” when the brothers returned.
"All six riders in the expedition were from different spheres and different places, we were not known to each other. But the way we bonded and hit it off together was one of the nicest parts of the expedition. Physical stamina constitutes only one percent to success, 99 percent is mental strength. You have to have the drive to do it,” Sarosh sums up.