HYDERABAD: Telangana-based mountaineer Poorna Malavath has achieved yet another feat by completing the ‘Seven Summits Challenge’. In her latest achievement, Poorna climbed the Mt Denali (6,190 mt), the highest mountain in the continent of North America, on June 5.
Poorna, who hails from the erstwhile Nizamabad district, scaled the highest peak of Mount Everest at the age of 13 years and became the youngest Indian and the youngest girl in the world to have reached the summit. “I am very happy to climb Mt Denali, I thank my sponsor Prof YV Gopala Krishna Murthy, Chairman of Ace Engineering Academy, Dr RS Praveen Kumar for identifying my talent and Bhukya Shoban Babu, Chairman of Bhukya Shoban Babu Foundation, Hyderabad, for supporting me,” Poorna said in a statement.
With the sponsorship of the ACE Engineering Academy for the Mt Denali expedition, she started for North America from India on May 18 and reached the starting point Anchorage in Alaska on May 19.
She was accompanied by four other Indians — Ajeet Bajaj, Padma Shri Awardee in adventure sports, Deeya Bajaj, Anmish Varma from Visakhapatnam and Varma, a mountaineer.
So far, Poorna has completed the Mt Everest (Asia), Mt Kilimanjaro (Africa), Mt Elbrus (Europe), Mt Aconcagua (South America), Mt Carstensz Pyramid (Oceania), Mt Vinson (Antarctica) and Mt Denali expeditions. The expedition was carried out with the help of Transcend Adventures, a Hyderabad-based company with licenses to operate worldwide expeditions. The firm has helped Poorna in scaling each of the peaks under the ‘Seven Summits Challenge’.