Quest of courage
By : Chokita Paul
Update: 2024-12-05 03:21 GMT
A biting cold morning on December 3, 2023, saw 16-year-old Vishwanath Karthikey stand at the summit of Mount Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica. Everything that had led to this triumph — the unfeeling training, the endless hours spent enduring cold nights in tents, the nausea from altitude sickness — seemed to vanish into the thin, frosty air.
This was no ordinary 16-year-old. Vishwanath had just become the youngest Indian to summit Mount Vinson Massif, standing on a peak at 16,050 feet. For a moment, all he could hear was the rush of the wind. His breath came in shallow, jagged bursts — suspended in the air at the edge of a continent that only a few dare to tread — a culmination of years of silent sacrifice.
Before he ever set foot on Vinson, Vishwanath had already climbed some of the world’s most demanding peaks — Denali in North America, Elbrus in Europe, Kilimanjaro in Africa. Yet, none of those heights had prepared him for the unyielding cold and fierce winds of Antarctica. It wasn’t just the altitude or the ice that tested him but the battles within himself.
“It all started on November 21, when he left Hyderabad with nothing but determination and an unspoken promise to himself. His parents, who had long believed in his dream, saw him off. Arriving in Punta Arenas, Chile, his face turned pale from the cold winds. When the time came, Vishwanath was ready. With every step he took, his body grew stronger, his resolve harder. The first night at base camp, he lay in his tent, shivering, as the cold seemed to pierce through even his warmest layers. His stomach churned from the altitude, but he clung to his training, to the lessons he’d learned from us,” his mentor Lt. Romil Barthwal, an Indian Army veteran, tells us, adding, “The summit that was just beyond his reach.”
Every night on the mountain was a test of patience. The cold seeped into his bones, and his body screamed for warmth. Stomach upsets became routine. Romil shares, “He had spent years training, not just his muscles but his mind, honing his ability to push through pain.”
The summit was a geographic point for Vishwanath as well as the fruition of everything he had learned, not just about climbing, but about life.
This was no ordinary 16-year-old. Vishwanath had just become the youngest Indian to summit Mount Vinson Massif, standing on a peak at 16,050 feet. For a moment, all he could hear was the rush of the wind. His breath came in shallow, jagged bursts — suspended in the air at the edge of a continent that only a few dare to tread — a culmination of years of silent sacrifice.
Before he ever set foot on Vinson, Vishwanath had already climbed some of the world’s most demanding peaks — Denali in North America, Elbrus in Europe, Kilimanjaro in Africa. Yet, none of those heights had prepared him for the unyielding cold and fierce winds of Antarctica. It wasn’t just the altitude or the ice that tested him but the battles within himself.
“It all started on November 21, when he left Hyderabad with nothing but determination and an unspoken promise to himself. His parents, who had long believed in his dream, saw him off. Arriving in Punta Arenas, Chile, his face turned pale from the cold winds. When the time came, Vishwanath was ready. With every step he took, his body grew stronger, his resolve harder. The first night at base camp, he lay in his tent, shivering, as the cold seemed to pierce through even his warmest layers. His stomach churned from the altitude, but he clung to his training, to the lessons he’d learned from us,” his mentor Lt. Romil Barthwal, an Indian Army veteran, tells us, adding, “The summit that was just beyond his reach.”
Every night on the mountain was a test of patience. The cold seeped into his bones, and his body screamed for warmth. Stomach upsets became routine. Romil shares, “He had spent years training, not just his muscles but his mind, honing his ability to push through pain.”
The summit was a geographic point for Vishwanath as well as the fruition of everything he had learned, not just about climbing, but about life.