HYDERABAD: For a mountaineer, climbing Mount Everest, days and nights merge. Everything happens at bone-chilling temperatures of -40 degrees Celsius. Here, sweat becomes ice, and life is not warranted given low oxygen levels and altitude of 8848.86 meters. But, for Anvitha Reddy Padamati, it was more or less like a vacation, an echo of hope, that kept apace until she summited Mt Everest on May 16 at 9.30 am with an ecstatic sigh of relief. Anvitha opens up to CE about the call of the mountains and says it comes from the passion to climb all the ‘Seven Summits’.
“Mt Everest is done, Mt Kilimanjaro is done, Mt Elbrus is done and dusted, now awaiting to summit Aconcagua, Denali, Mount Vinson and Carstensz,” says Anvitha Reddy. The 24-year old mountaineer is an instructor at the Bhongir Mountaineering School. “My sole aim, for now, is to tick all the ‘Seven Summits’ of my dream list,” says she.
Anvitha set out from Hyderabad to climb Mount Everest in the first week of April. On May 12, she reached base camp in Nepal and trekked along with a sherpa. She says the difficulty level was down by 70 per cent for she has scaled Mt Elbrus in December last year, besides Mt Khadey, Ladakh and Mt Kilimanjaro.
“I had already practised trekking at -40 degrees Celsius in Elbrus, this made the Everest trek easier, but honestly, the terrain was difficult,” shares Anvitha. “I was literally on top of the world. It was this very moment which kept me moving despite enormous terrain challenges. This apart, convincing my parents was not easy for they were averse to adventure sport,” she adds elaborating about challenges she faced while climbing one of the toughest summits.
She may be a tough looking person from the outside, yet, she is a very soft-spoken and modest mountaineer. She aims to introduce as many kids as possible to mountaineering. “I request all the parents to introduce adventure to the kids. It will improve their confidence. I want every kid to be strong and confident. All may not reach peaks of mountains, but will learn a lot about life through climbing,” said Anvitha while speaking at the press conference in Mercure Hotel at Somajiguda, organised by the management of Anvita Group, the sponsors of her Everest expedition.