This week, The Musafir Stories speaks to Satyarup Siddhanta - a Bengaluru-based Bengali mountaineer. On December 15, 2017 he became the first Bengali civilian from India to complete the seven highest summits in the 7 continents. He is the President and founder of ABETO – "A better tomorrow" foundation, and works as a consultant at Brady Corporation, India.
Today's destination: Mt. Everest, Nepal
Nearest Airport: Lukla airport
Nearest Railway Station: n/a
Prerequisities - Required visas, training and certification, practice and acclimatization
Packing - n/a
Time of the year - May
Length of the itinerary: 55 days from the base camp to the Everest summit and back
Itinerary Highlights:
- Satya shares the story of his early struggles from asthma as a kid and how he overcame this to start climbing.
- Satya's speaks of his expedition to Mt. Killimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa and how he discovered the feat to the 7 Summits i.e. a challenge to scale the 7 highest peaks in each of th 7 continents (Mt. Everest in Asia, Mt. Killimanjaro in Africa, Mt. Elbrus in Europe, Mt. Aconcagua in S.America, Mt. Mckinley in N.America, Mt. Kosciuszko in Australia, Mt. Vinson Masiff in Antarctica)
- Satya discusses his trek to the Mt. Everest base camp and how this turned into a dream to scale the summit of the tallest mountain in the world.
- He then also discusses how the massive expenses related to the expedition played as a deterrent to his dreams and how he overcame the challenge.
- Next Satya discusses the preparation and acclimitazation he underwent to scale Mt. Everest, he had to quit his existing job, take up two jobs, hire a personal trainer and overcome his sweet tooth in order to get ready for the Everest challenge!
- Satya explains the duration of the Everest expedition and the iterations and acclimatization involved during the push to the summit.
- The adversities that Satya had to face during the push to the summit are also discussed, this includes a fall in a bottomless crevasse, watcing a sherpa fall to his death while climbing, and members of other teams losing fingers due to frost bite as well as death.
- Satya himself suffered from temporary blindness in the left eye while close to the summit, a failed oxygen mask and 3 failed cameras!
- Satya finally describes the feeling of being on top of the world as well as the sights!
- Final thoughts and tips.
- Listeners can follow Satyarup on his social media handles below and contribute to his expeditions when fundraising takes place.
Links:
Satyarup Siddhanta's Website
7 Summits : Climbing the Highest Peaks Across the Globe
Follow him on Instagram
Like his work on Facebook
Follow him on Twitter
email: satyarup.siddhanta@gmail.com
Cover Art Photo by Theodor Lundqvist on Unsplash