One is a woman police officer working as Additional Superintendent in Adilabad district, G.R. Radhika, while the other is a contract labour on Andhra Pradesh Transco projects, D. Bhadraiah. Fatigued but beaming with pride, they flew back here at the end of a 50-day expedition after scaling the world’s tallest peak under the guidance of an ace mountaineer.
The three Telugu-speaking members of the expedition were part of an 8-member team, of which five actually breathed the shallow, but fresh air atop Mt. Everest a few days ago. They landed at Shamshabad airport to a warm welcome and loads of bouquets. When contacted, the expedition leader Shekhar Babu Bachinepally who runs the Bhongir Rock Climbing School in adjacent Nalgonda district seemed to have run out of words, describing his happiness at the success of the team he had trained.
The three others in the expedition who conquered Mt. Everest are an Indian Police officer of the Maharashtra cadre Suhail Sharma, an Indian Forest Service officer of Karnataka cadre, S. Prabakaran and Balan Shivaraman who works in a private company in Dubai. Apart from Mr. Shekhar, the two others who did not touch the peak included the team’s doctor Vimal Jaiswal and Ashok Munne who complained of pain and was advised by the Team Leader to give up this time.
Distinction
After Mr. Shekhar Babu himself scaled Mt. Everest first in the year 2007, he got the distinction of being the first civilian from South India to do so. Again, in 2014, he repeated his feat, with Poorna, a student of Class IX of Pakala village in Nizamabad district and Anand a student who is doing his graduation from the Nizam College here.
Poorna became the youngest girl in the world to climb the peak.
Speaking to The Hindu , Ms. Radhika, a police officer selected from Group I services in 2007, hailing from Anantapur district, said that if she could afford it, she wanted to do what is typically called ‘One Degree Skiing’ in Antarctica.
“I have been lucky and tough enough physically to conquer Mt. Everest but if it happens, I would like to realise my dream of ‘One Degree Skiing’ on the ice in Antarctica,” she said.
