Telugu youth from Telangana, AP conquer Mt Elbrus

​Hyderabad/ Vijayawada: There is no stopping for the dynamic young brigade from both the Telugu States in the arena of adventures, especially in mountaineering. The youth, students of social welfare residential institutions from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana keep on conquering mighty mountains.

This time, our Telugu teenagers created history by climbing Mount Elbrus in Russia, which is the highest peak in Europe. Two teams from AP and Telangana made it to one of the seven summits.

The AP team consisted of Satya Rao of Bagaram Palem in Visakhapatnam and Raghunadh Reddy of Tadepalli in Guntur district along with the two-member TSWREIS team led by Malavath Poorna began trekking the mountain on July 24.

Academy of Adventure Sports Director Raghunadh Reddy said that both the teams reached the summit of Mount Elbrus on Thursday 7.30 am (Moscow time) and displayed 50-ft Indian tricolour on the summit along with the photographs of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
Satya Rao is one the six persons climbed, who was selected and went to climb Mount Everest by Youth Services department and he reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 13 this year. This will be his second peak, out of seven summits.

Mount Elbrus team was trained at Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) by weightlifting coach V N Rajasekhar for fitness and Raghunath Reddy worked as trekking guide who headed the recently concluded Mount Everest expedition.

Both the teams flew to Russia on July 21, and reached the base of Mount Elbrus on July 22. On July 23, the teams climbed up to 3, 500 meters for acclimatisation and back to base camp and again on July 24, the teams climbed 3, 500 meters and stayed night halt.

Later, on July 25th the team members moved to camp at 4, 000 meters and climbed up to 4,300 meters for acclimatisation. On July 26, the teams climbed up to 4, 800 meters for acclimatisation and back to 4, 000 meters camp.

On Thursday, the team reached the summit of Mount Elbrus and displayed 50-ft Indian tricolour flag on the summit. Academy of Adventure Sports director Raghunadh Reddy said that the teams are descending to base camp and after successful completion of expedition the team would reach Vijayawada on August 1.

Young girls Malavat Poorna and Sri Vidya from Telangana and Varsha Rahul of Pune also scaled the peak along with the team. Poorna is the world record holder and youngest female to climb Mount Everest.

Sri Vidya, 16-year-old student of Aleir school, with full of excitement said, “I cannot even describe how difficult the climb was, but I resolved on achieving the impossible against all odds”.

“As a mark of tribute, I hoisted the portrait of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on top of the Mt. Elbrus. “I am determined to scale the seven highest mountain peaks in the seven continents of the world, said the confident Malavath Poorna after successfully conquering the Europe’s highest mountain peak. So far, I conquered the three highest mountain peaks in the three continents of the world, Mt. Everest in Asia, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa and Mt. Elbrus, Europe.

Sri Vidya hails from Nalgonda district and her parents work as daily wage labourers. Malavath Poorna hails from a tribal hamlet in Nizamabad district and currently pursuing undergraduate course at TSWRDC Ibrahimpatnam.

Dr RS Praveen Kumar, Secretary, TSWREIS expressed happiness over the remarkable achievements of the young mountaineers. Our children may be poor, but they are never poor in energy, enthusiasm and determination, he appreciated. Mount Elbrus is situated between the Black and the Caspian Sea on territory of the Russian Federation, only 20 km from the Georgian border.

Mount Elbrus is a dormant volcano. The last explosion occurred about 2,000 years ago. The two summits of Elbrus are in fact two craters of volcano. Everywhere on its slopes you can see debris of solidified lava.