GUNTUR: Twenty-two-year-old A Saikiran from Chilakaluripet, Palnadu, has created a record by becoming the first person to climb a virgin peak in Uttarakhand that towers to 5,260 metres. Always athletic, Saikiran took interest in mountain climbing at the age of 18 when he took admission at a rock climbing school and was trained to climb the monolithic Bhongir hill at Bhuvanagiri, Cuddalore, and some in Sikkim. In 2019, he scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro, a dormant volcano in Tanzania that reaches a height of 5,895m above the sea level, in six days, which made him an overnight star.
Hailing from a below middle-class family, it wasn’t easy for Saikiran to find his footing. “As difficult as it was to train and prepare for the event, raising funds for the Kilimanjaro climb was also a tough job. My father is a carpenter and in no way could he afford my travelling expenses. At such time, my college helped me and introduced me to some sponsors.” The fame that Kilimanjaro brought him did not let him struggle for financial assistance any further. Later, he climbed a mountain that towers to 6,000 metres on the Indo-Tibetan border and hoisted a 365-feet Indian national flag for which he received accolades from Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.
On his experience of scaling a virgin peak, Saikiran said: “I was introduced to the idea when one of my sponsors asked me what my end goal was. I responded by saying Mount Everest. In return, he asked me what was new about it since several people have already scaled it, which made me research on virgin peaks in India. And with the cooperation of the GO CLIMB UP company, I started trekking the unclimbed mountain on May 2, 2022. It was a big challenge for me as it tested all my skills and experience.”
With him becoming the first person to scale the unnamed peak on May 11, it was named Mount YSR on his request, he claimed. Stating that his goal is to complete scaling all the highest peaks in seven continents, he added, “It was such a joy to explore something that no one has ever done before. It was an amazing experience, and now I’m much more interested in exploring more virgin peaks in India.”