Kolkata man world's youngest to scale seven peaks, seven volcanic summits

KOLKATA: Satyarup Siddhanta, an IT professional from Kolkata, scaled Mount Sidley in Antarctica on Wednesday morning to become the youngest climber in the world, at 35, to have scaled seven peaks and seven volcanic summits.
So far, Australia's Daniel Bull has held the world record in the Guinness World Records.
The tracker on the satellite phone with Satyarup came to a halt at 6.28am (IST) and remained stationery there.His last elevation point was also fixed at 4,224 meter. "Such a long halt could only point at two possibilities. Either he made it or he was in trouble," recounted Dipanjan Das, Satyarup's friend, who had been tracking his journey to Mount Sidley, the most remote volcanic summit in the world.
Soon after, Das's phone buzzed. It was Siddhanta. He said: "I made it. I am dedicating this summit to my country and my family." Even before he could say something else, the signal snapped.
"Sidley is different. Satyarup had previously been to Antarctica (to climb Mount Vinson and to ski to the South Pole), but nothing is quite like Sidley," said James Stone, a British climber, who scaled Mount Sidley in January, 2017.
The 35-year-old's journey to Mount Sidley started on January 10. He flew on a twin otter aircraft to Union Glacier -- the base camp.The next few days were spent in collecting material from the base camp to high camp at an altitude of 2,200 meter on sleds. The climbers continued to acclimatize throughout the next few days. "You can always expect the unexpected. We made one summit attempt but were turned back by strong winds. Volcanoes tend to be steep and relentless. The wind kicks up tiny particles of snow which are sharp like tiny glasses and can scratch your eyeballs," recounted Stone.
Satyarup left for the final push from the high camp around 8.20 pm (IST) on Tuesday. "The wind was very strong and visibility poor. We could not find the peak and struggled through the ice surface to find the right one," Siddhanta told TOI over a satellite phone. "Finally we managed to reach the peak and it was something I never felt before," he added.