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Pulling tractor tyres, hauling a sled: How India’s youngest South Pole skier Kaamya Karthikeyan trained
At 18, Kaamya Karthikeyan skied to the South Pole, training from Gulmarg to Delhi and battling −30°C cold and injury to become the youngest Indian to do so
At 18, Kaamya Karthikeyan has become the youngest Indian and second-youngest woman in the world to ski to the South Pole. She braved temperatures dipping to -30°C and gale-force winds to cover nearly 60 nautical miles (roughly115 km) on foot from 89° South, pulling a sled carrying her entire expedition load, and reached the South Pole on December 27.
“Over the last 10 years of climbing, this is probably the most difficult expedition of my life so far. But if there is one thing that has been my biggest strength, it is resilience,” she tells us.
On the third day, an injury nearly forced her to abandon the expedition: “There was talk of having a pickup sent to take me back due to cold burns. The fear of being sent back really played with my mind. Given one day to prove that it would not worsen, I pushed myself to walk for five gruelling hours on the ice. Having made it feels special.”
Her prep began in 2021 in Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir. “We trained to pull sleds weighing 40kg to 50kg for eight hours at a stretch, because during the expedition I had to pull a sled carrying my entire logistics,” In the final few weeks, she trained in Delhi. “I was training by pulling tractor tyres tied to a harness around my waist to simulate pulling a sled on ice,” she says.
Back from the expedition, Kaamya admits that readjusting to civilisation hasn’t been easy either. “Reaching the ALE camp at the South Pole (a semi-temporary structure) brought unexpected joy for me in simple comforts like chairs, tables and heaters. After eight days of endless white, seeing grass again in Punta Arenas, Chile, felt nothing short of a miracle.”
