Indian women mountaineers Tashi and Nungshi Malik, popularly known as the 'Everest Twins', will be participating in the '100% Women Peak Challenge' organised by the Switzerland Tourism to give women greater prominence in Swiss mountain sports.

The challenge, which started on the International Women's Day on March 8 and runs till October 8, has so far seen more than 400 female mountaineers climb all 48 of Switzerland's 4,000m (approximately 13,000 feet) peaks in teams made up entirely of women.

The Malik sisters, multi-Guinness world record holders who have won the prestigious Tenzing Norgay National Adventure award, will be travelling to Switzerland early next week

Hailing from rural Haryana, Tashi and Nungshi Malik had their first encounter with mountaineering in 2009 when their father, Col. Virender Singh Malik, had applied to the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Dehradun on their behalf.

In 2013, they became the first female twins to summit Mount Everest and are also the first siblings and twins to climb the Seven Summits and reach the North and South Pole to complete the Adventurers Grand Slam and Three Poles Challenge.

After representing India in challenge next week, the sisters will become the first female twins to scale a 4000m peak in the Swiss Alps.

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