Telugu guy scales world's seven tallest peaks

HYDERABAD: He is an IITian from Kharagpur and a management graduate from IIM, Kolkata. But what sets మల్లి మస్తాన్‌ బాబు (Malli Mastan Babu) apart from his academic counterparts and mountaineering giants is that he conquered seven tallest peaks in seven continents of the world in record time.

That makes the boy from Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, the fastest to summit all the seven tallest peaks in the world, and most importantly the first Indian and South Asian to achieve it.

Also, he is the first Indian to summit Mt Vinson Massif in Antarctica and the first from Andhra Pradesh to conquer Mt Everest.

All this in 172 days spread over six months this year. As many as 80 others have summitted all the seven peaks before him, with the next fastest being 188 days by a Canadian — a record 'Malli' as he is fondly called by friends, beat.

Malli hails from an agriculture family and dreamt of climbing the Everest when he was only 11-years-old. His inspiration? Lt M Vijayabhaskar who attempted to conquer the peak.

Twenty-five years later, in January this year, the 31-year-old set his sights on the seven tallest summits of the world.

Starting with Mt Vinson Massif in Antarctica, he conquered one peak a month, in the next six months. In February, he climbed the 6,972 metres tall Mt Aconcagua in Argentina, South America, in just 10 days as he only had a transit visa into the country and that expired in 15 days.

Next was 5,895 mt, Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, in March, followed by 2,228 mt Mt Kosciuzsko in Australia in April.

He came back to India in May to take on Mt Everest, which he fondly calls his 'Mecca' and summitted the 8,850 metre peak on May 21.

The 31-year-old adventurist then went on to conquer, Mt Elbrus in Russia in June and Mt Denali in the USA in July. "There are no great people. Only great challenges and people who surpass them. This is the thumb rule, I was taught by Captain M S Kohli who led India's first Mt Everest expedition," Malli said.

Courtesy: TOI