Kol Man Youngest Indian To Climb 7 Volcanic Summits | Kolkata News – Times of India

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KOLKATA: Thirty-three-year-old Salt Lake resident Nilavishek Mukherjee is now the youngest Indian to have scaled seven volcanic summits after he reached the the top of Mount Sidley—most remote volcano in the world. Mukherjee made it to the summit on January 18.
While the trip started smoothly, Mukherjee faced trouble when he reached the Union Glacier — a large heavily crevassed glacier that receives flow of several tributaries. “The weather suddenly worsened and there were low clouds. The visibility was near zero making it impossible for us to fly to the advanced camp site,” Mukherjee told TOI over the phone. The area is close to a blue ice runway that allows wheeled jet cargo aircraft to land.
“We left for the Mount Sidley base camp after a delay of six days. This posed a new challenge as we had only four days left to complete the summit,” he said.
On January 17, the team comprising Mukherjee, three more climbers and the guide decided to go for the summit push. The temperature was minus 30 degrees and the wind was strong. “We were four climbers from different parts of the world attempting the summit. As the weather was not conducive at all, we decided to go for the summit push the next day,” he said.
Toughest challenge in scaling Mount Sidley is the extreme cold and chances of cold exposure. Climbers have to eat something every hour to keep the body energised. Each time Mukherjee opened his gloves to eat, his hands froze. “On the last day we gained nearly 1,200 metres in 7 hours 45 minutes. The steep slope, coupled with extreme cold and a very long climb made it difficult for us,” he said. As he walked up the mountain, he carried a 10kg sack on his back and 25kg on the sledge he pulled. As the team reached the summit around 5.30pm (Antarctic time) Mukherjee stood motionless for a while. His dreams had just come true. He slowly took out the Indian national flag and asked a fellow climber to click a photograph.
As he spoke over the phone, hours before he left for Santiago, the climber from Kolkata sounded calmer. “I will reach Kolkata by February end. Haven’t met mom and dad for quite a while,” he said.

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