The Hindu : Front Page : On a mission to conquer peaks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 30, 2005

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On a mission to conquer peaks

K. Srinivas Reddy

DETERMINATION: Ready for the adventure. — Photo: D. Gopalakrishnan

HYDERABAD: Mountains have certainly enchanted this management man. So much so that Malli Mastan Babu left a lucrative career and took to mountaineering. This Nellore man now wants to set a world record by scaling the seven highest summits in the seven continents in the shortest time.

Targeting to break the record set by a New Zealander in scaling the summits in 214 days, Mastan Babu wants to achieve the task in less than 200 days. His effort will begin in mid-December and the toughest task of conquering Mount Everest will begin in the first week of April next. The 31-year-old man, an alumni of IIM, Calcutta, and IIT Kharagpur, is undergoing rigorous training in Sikkim.

He has set his eyes on conquering the seven highest peaks -- Everest (Asia), Aconcagua (South America), Denali (North America), Kilimanjaro (Africa), Elbrus (Europe), Vinson Massif (Antarctica) and Kosciuszko (Australia).

Earlier experience

Mastan Babu is not a rookie mountaineer. He has already scaled Kilimanjaro and Aconcagua and says the experience will be of extreme help when he attempts the world record. "I have begun to respect her. You would be entering the death zone because at an altitude of 26,000 feet only one third of oxygen is available. Less oxygen means, the climber would get disoriented," says Mastan Babu who hails from a farmer family of Gandhi Jansangham village in Nellore district. Lack of oxygen is not a problem for Mastan Babu, but lack of funds is certainly a problem. Any sponsors for him?

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