INDIA. Mumbai: As the youngest Indian to accomplish the accomplishment, Ms. Kaamya Karthikeyan, a climbing prodigy and the daughter of Indian Navy Commander S. Karthikeyan, carried the tricolour and the Naval Ensign to the top of Mount Denali (20310 ft) on June 27.
Vice Admiral Ajendra Bahadur Singh, Flag Officer Commanding in Chief, Western Naval Command flagged off her mountaineering excursion on June 3.
The most difficult of the seven summit challenges is a remote Alaskan peak that is the highest in North America. She has already reached the fifth stage of her goal of skiing to both poles and climbing the highest peaks on each of the seven continents.
Kaamya is in a good position to accomplish the Explorer’s Grandslam and will likely be the youngest to do so with Mount Everest, Vinson, and the polar ski traverses still to go.
The 14-year-old girl attends Mumbai’s Navy Children School. She conquered Mt. Aconcagua in 2020, the highest mountain in South America and outside of Asia, to become the youngest woman to do so.
On February 1 at 4:00 a.m., she sumitted the 6,962-meter (20841-foot) high Argentinian mountain summit while hoisting the Indian tricolour.
She bags a long list of summits to her credit and swears by her running and cycling workouts to be the wind behind her wings.
As a child, Kaamya had developed a deep passion for mountaineering as she listened to her father’s stories of Himalayan-scaling expeditions. Initially, she started with basic treks in Lonavala, (Pune, Maharashtra) at the age of three, and by nine, she had completed several high-altitude Himalayan treks with her parents including (Roopkund (5020 meters) in Uttarakhand.
She began exploring the Himalayas and trekked to many beautiful locations like Chandrashila Peak, Har-ki Dun, Kedarkantha Peak, Roopkund Lake, Brighu Lake, and Sar pass. Her most notable trekking accomplishment came in May 2017, when she trekked to Everest Base Camp in Nepal at 17600 ft to become the second youngest girl in the world to accomplish the feat.
In August 2017, Kaamya climbed Mt. Stok Kangri at 20187 Ft to become the youngest climber in the world to climb a peak above 20000 Ft or 6000 Metres. No stranger to tall mountains, on August 24, 2019, under extreme cold weather conditions, she summitted Mt Mentok Kangri II (6262 m) (20,544 feet) peak that overlooks the Tso Moriri lake in Ladakh,
“Her mission is to conquer the highest peaks on every continent and ski to both the Poles. She has already bested the highest peaks in Africa, Europe, and Australia. The Indian Navy wishes her the best in all future endeavours. May she grow from the summit to summit,” an official statement said.
Also Read: Everest Base Camp Trek
