She’ll climb any mountain

Despite only receiving nine months of training, she was able to summit Mt Everest in 2013.  She went on to complete a basic advanced course at Darjeeling in 2013 and returned home.
Writer Aparna Thota and mountaineer Poorna Malavath discuss the latter’s biography at the Hyderabad Literary Festival. (Photo | Express)
Writer Aparna Thota and mountaineer Poorna Malavath discuss the latter’s biography at the Hyderabad Literary Festival. (Photo | Express)

HYDERABAD: Starting with a five-day course at Bhongir Fort, Poorna became the youngest woman to scale Mt Everest in 2014.Sessions by P Sainath, Priya Ramani, Samar Halarnkar & Niloufer Venkatraman were enjoyed by all

Poorna Malavath, the 22-year-old mountaineer who scaled the Mount Everest at the age of 13, on Sunday, revealed that her most recent expedition was to an unnamed and unexplored peak located in Ladakh in August 2022.

Speaking at the Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF) about her biography, Poorna: The youngest girl in the world to scale Mt Everest, penned by Aparna Thota, Poorna said: “Initially, there wasn’t any idea of climbing the Everest. There was only a plan for rock climbing at the Bhongir Fort rock climbing institute for five days. The very first day, I saw a huge rock, which was around 650 feet high. There were so many questions running around in my mind as to how it would be possible for me to climb, but after the five-day training I felt confident that I could do anything.”

Poorna recently graduated from Telangana Social Welfare Residential School and hails from Nizamabad district. Despite only receiving nine months of training, she was able to summit Mt Everest in 2013.  She went on to complete a basic advanced course at Darjeeling in 2013 and returned home. She said, “I then realised that there are many opportunities outside of our comfort zones.

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Many girls of my age were getting married in the villages which motivated me to show that girls can achieve anything when given a chance.” The young mountaineer, has since, completed her Master’s in Political Science from Osmania University and went as an exchange student to Minnesota State University.

She said, “In the past eight years, the mountains have taught me a lot, mainly confidence, patience, discipline, hard work and team work. I have many goals and I believe in taking step after step to reach the ultimate goal. Right now I am working towards making a passion into a profession.”

“I hope that more women take up adventure sports and I think that mountaineering should be experienced by everyone at least once in their lifetime,” she added.

The author of Poorna’s biography, Aparna Thota, added: “Poorna was very young at the time of her expedition to Mt Everest. The trainers had to overcome the guilt and dilemma about pushing the girl and had to convince themselves. But the best part was Poorna was always stable and didn’t have any dilemma.”

DEFYING ALL ODDS
When girls from her village were getting married, Poorna Malavath went to Darjeeling for an advanced course, which gave her the confidence to achieve great things in life. She hopes more women take up adventure sports

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