Heeding the call of the mountains

Scaling the world’s great mountain peaks is challenging for adults. So when children take up the task, it surely is special. While kids his age are busy playing, Samanyu Pothuraju, an 8-year-old kid from the city, is attempting to scale the highest mountain peaks in the world. The latest feather to his cap is a recent trip to Mt Elbrus, which is the highest peak of the European continent between Russia and Georgia. Samanyu was the youngest person to attempt scaling Mt Elbrus but he couldn’t complete it due to heavy wind flow. 

Considered an unusual activity for young kids, how did he get interested in mountaineering? As it turns out, he took to mountaineering after a school event and was encouraged by his mother to go ahead. 

But this isn’t the only climb to his credit. He already holds a world record for being the world’s youngest person to have summited Mt Kilimanjaro at the age of 7. Samanyu is now eyeing bigger and better things. He plans to scale Mount Kosciuszko in Australia sometime later this year. 

Elaborating on how he got into mountaineering and what he loves the most about these gruelling treks, he says, “I love playing with the snow, which motivated me to go into mountaineering. Even at Mt Elbrus, I was very happy to see vast masses of land all covered in snow. The climb was tough though, due to heavy wind flow, I couldn’t go ahead, I kept falling down.” 

“It was not easy for us to let Samanyu take up mountaineering. Only after getting safety assurances from the trainers did we give a green signal. Even sponsors were a big problem, initially. But after he made the record-breaking journey to Mt Kilimanjaro, it became a little easy to get sponsors,” says Lavanya, his mother. So, what else interests this little climber? Samanyu loves running, cycling and karate.