VISAKHAPATNAM: Of the six youth from
Andhra Pradesh, who comprised the first Indian team this season to scale the
Mount Everest (8850 metres) on Saturday from
Northern Tibet side
,
Nagaraju Sundarana
hailing from Sabbavaram in
Visakhapatnam district
of Andhra Pradesh, was the first to set foot on the World’s Highest peak at 8:20 am.
A short while after he came down to the base camp happy and excited, Nagaraju tells TOI from China, “I am happy to scale the mountain from Tibet side. This was my first and new experience for me. I enjoyed that moment of standing on the top of the world. I will next attempt to summit the Everest from the South End that is Nepal side.”
Just a couple of days ago, Nagaraju and the team members were apprehensive that they may have to abort the climb as the weather suddenly turned adverse with stormy winds raging at about 2 am-3 am, the morning of the final climb onto the peak.
But they braved all odds and in the words of their team leader Bharat Thammineni, “Enduring the hostile weather and crossing several dead bodies along the trek route, we finally reached the summit.”
The six summiteers hail from economically weak families and the state government sponsored their trek, which was organised by Transcend Adventures. But what sets Nagaraju apart is that this 20-year-old is an adventure sports lover is a marathon-runner as well and belongs to an extremely poor family. His parents Eswar Rao Sandarana and Lakshmi Sandarana are daily wage earners by profession.
But there is no stopping him. Having participated in marathons in various places such as Karnataka and Amravathi, he averred, “I am also looking forward to participating in the Iron Man contest in the near future.”
When asked what motivated him in his climb, this B.Sc. Computer Science student said, “It’s the constant support of my team members, coaches, trainers and organisers that motivated me.
Apart from Nagaraju, others who summited Mount Everest on Saturday include Bharat Thammineni, Durga Rao, K Satya Rao, Suresh Babu and Krishna.
Sulogna Mehta is a principal correspondent with The Times of Indi...
Read MoreSulogna Mehta is a principal correspondent with The Times of India in Visakhapatnam. She handles beats such as Medical and Health, Tourism, Women and child welfare and communities. She has a liking for medical and health related stories. She has interest in creative writing. Her hobby is travelling.
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