Sukhi Bal Climbs Ama Dablam, Targets Everest Next
Australia‑based actress Sukhi Bal conquered Nepal’s Ama Dablam, carrying her parents’ photos. She now eyes climbing Everest, honoring her late father’s mountain dreams.
Actress Sukhi Bal scaled 6,812‑metre Ama Dablam in Nepal, carrying memories of her late father. She now plans to tackle Everest.
Sukhi Bal, Ama Dablam, Everest, mountaineering, Punjabi actress, Nepal trekking, mountain climbing, Australian actress, Indian actors, adventure sports
Australia‑based actress Sukhi Bal has just summited Nepal’s Ama Dablam, a peak standing at 6,812 meters. The climb was not a studio shoot, but a real test of strength and will.
Bal, born in Punjab, carried photographs of her parents to the summit. She told reporters she had spoken to her father before the climb, reminding herself of the 6,812‑metre challenge. “I told my father — this is 6,812 metres, one of the most technical peaks,” Bal said. Her father, Sardar Ranjit Singh, inspired her love of mountains; Bal remembered that “his passion for mountains all his life…passed his wonder for the peaks on to me.”
She began serious trekking two‑and‑a‑half years ago. In 2025 she completed the Everest Base Camp trek and summited Labouché Peak at 6,119 metres. The training was gruelling, both mentally and physically. “Mentally, you have to be 110% present. Physically you can be tired, but if you are mentally strong, you can pull yourself up,” she explained. “A climb of seven, eight, sometimes nine hours— that is only possible through willpower and mental strength.”
Her mentor, Malkit Singh, also from Punjab and based in New Zealand, previously summited Everest in 2024. He first advised Bal to visit Everest Base Camp, which set her mountaineering journey in motion. Bal returns to India annually for film and theatre projects, a career she has maintained since her student days at Punjabi University, Patiala, where she earned a Master’s in Political Science. She moved to Australia in 2007, planning a two‑year stay, and then her passion for acting mingled with mountaineering.
Now Bal is eyeing Everest. “Everest remains the summit of summits, the mountain my father dreamed of and the one I have been circling, in every sense, for most of her life,” she said. She added, “Mountaineering looks like an external journey, but honestly, it is about going inwards. I recall one adage that stayed with me right through the trek, ‘You don’t climb mountains. Mountains allow you to climb them’.”
She shares few tips for aspiring climbers:
- Prioritise leg strength – squats, stair climbing.
- Long walks with a weighted backpack build foundation.
- Training outdoors in winter wearing only a T‑shirt acclimatises the body to cold.
- Breathing exercises are central, given high‑altitude strain on lungs.
- Yoga and meditation underpin all.
With a future Everest ambition, Bal’s story blends acting, heritage, and the relentless pull of the high Himalayas. Her next push to the world’s highest peak promises to be as inspiring as her past climbs.