Noted mountaineer Satyarup Siddhanta scales Mount Giluwe

Kolkata: The noted mountaineer from the state, Satyarup Siddhanta added yet another feather in his cap by scaling Mount Giluwe — the second highest mountain in Papua New Guinea early on Friday morning.

Siddhanta has now become the first Indian to have successfully climbed the volcanic mountain that has a height of 4367m.

"Satyarup became the first civilian Bengali to have scaled the Seven Summits last year. Now, he is determined to conquer the challenging Seven Volcanic mountains. This is the 5th in the series that he scaled on Friday. He is slated to start his next expedition on November 28 for Pico de Orizaba in Mexico and followed by Mount Sidleyin Antarctica — the last in the list of the Volcanic Seven Summits in January 2019," said Gayatri Siddhanta, mother of Satyarup.

Giluwe has the distinction of being the highest volcano on the Australian continent and Oceania. Siddhanta had successfully climbed the Mt Everest in June 2016 and completed the expedition of the Seven Summits in December 2017.

It may be mentioned that out of 7.6 billion population of the world, only a handful few (in hundreds) have the feat to climb all the 7 Summits. A Bengali mountaineer based in Delhi Satyabrata Dam had scaled the seven summit some years ago but he was a non-civilian.

The first 7 summitter from India, Malli Mastan Babu, in 2015 died of hypothermia at Tres Cruces Sur, on the Chile-Argentina border when a storm came.

"It was early at 7 am when I received a message through his satellite communication device. He also sent a text message that reached me in the afternoon. We have now become accustomed to similar messages from Satyarup overcoming one challenge after the another," his mother said.

Satyarup, who originally hails from Haridevpur in Kolkata, is credited to have successfully climbed challenging peaks that includes Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mt Elbrus in Europe, Mt Aconcagua in Argentina, Mt Denali in Alaska and Mt Monc Blanc in France to name a few.