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Telangana’s Poorna Malavath scales sixth-tallest peak, eyes on seventh now
Mt Denali is next on the list of Malavath, who is pursuing a one-year undergraduate course at the Minnesota State University as part of the US’ Global Undergraduate Exchange Programme.
“Given the right opportunity, girls are no inferior to boys in any field. Only sky is the limit for them. I have chosen mountaineering only to prove this point,” Poorna Malavath says.
The 19-year-old Malavath became the first and youngest tribal woman in the world to scale six highest mountains in six continents when she conquered Mt Vinson Massif, the tallest peak in Antarctica, on December 26 last year.
Malavath, the daughter of small farmers in a remote area in Telangana’s Nizamabad, conquered Mount Everest—the highest mountain peak in the world—at an age of 13 years and 11 months in 2014.
After that, she has climbed four other mountains in four different continents – Mt Kilimanjaro (Africa, 2016), Mt Elbrus (Europe, 2017), Mt Aconcagua (South America, 2019) and Mt Carstensz (Oceania region, 2019) – before setting her feet on Mt Vinson Massif.
Malavath said her experience while climbing Mt Vinson Massif was different from other mountains in every way. She was a part of the four-member group from 7 Summits Club, Russia, that left for Antarctica in the third week of December.
“Well, Antarctica is the coldest continent and is not inhabited by people. Compared to other mountains, the Mt Vinson Massif, at a height of 4,892 metres (approximately 16,050ft), is very steep in the last leg of the expedition and was extremely risky. Unless one has tremendous physical strength, it is very difficult to scale it,” she said while speaking to Hindustan Times from the US.
“It was a thrilling experience as I reached the peak. It was definitely the most challenging of all the expeditions that I had in the past in terms of preparation and logistics,” she said.
Mt Denali is next on the list of Malavath, who is pursuing a one-year undergraduate course at the Minnesota State University as part of the US’ Global Undergraduate Exchange Programme.
“My next target is Mt Denali, North America’s highest mountain peak, which is the dream of every mountaineer in the world, for which I have to start making preparations at the earliest. That would make scaling seven tallest mountains in seven continents. I have not yet thought what I should do after that,” she said.
Malavath attributes her success to senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer RS Praveen Kumar, the secretary of Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society.
Praveen Kumar spotted her talent and has been mentoring her growth as a mountaineer right from her days of schooling at the social welfare school in Nizamabad.
“Apart from Praveen sir, I owe my success to my coach Bachinepalli Sekhar of Transcend Adventures, who has been taking care of all my necessities including finding sponsors and of course, my parents, Devidas and Lakshmi, who are still struggling in agricultural fields to fulfil my ambition,” Malavath said.
While mountaineering has been her passion, the enthusiastic young woman has set her eyes on civil services as her career.
“I want to become an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer and serve my country. But that does not mean I will give up mountaineering after that. It is not a hobby, but it is part of my life,” Malavath said.
Malavath’s success story has already attracted national attention after Bollywood actor and director Rahul Bose made a biopic on her in 2017. And Bengaluru-based publisher Prism Books has also published a biography on her life.
“Poorna’s expeditions will remain engraved in golden letters in the annals of the world’s mountaineering history,” Praveen Kumar said.
