A 13-year-old daughter of poor Indian
farmers who became the youngest girl to
climb Mount Everest said Wednesday that
she “shed joyful tears” at the summit after a
grueling climb across difficult terrain and
personal fear.
Nepal requires climbers to be at least 16
years old to scale its peaks, but Malavath
Poorna said she and a team of Nepalese
guides climbed the 29,035-foot mountain on
May 25 from the northern side in Tibet.
There are no age restrictions in China.
“It was very difficult. Every step is a
dangerous step,” a smiling Poorna told
reporters in New Delhi, describing steep
slopes, exposed rocks, deep crevasses and
extreme cold that went below minus 40
degrees Fahrenheit.
At 10,830 feet, she said she saw “six dead
bodies. I was shocked. Oh my god I got
some fear.”
But she remembered her training and
regained her confidence.
“When I reached the top of Everest, very
good experience. I feel great and proud, and I
shed joyful tears” as she looked around and
saw “mighty mountains and morning
sunlight,” she said in English, waving her
hands expressively as she spoke.
The climb was verified by the China Tibet
Mountaineering Association in Lhasa, making
Malavath the youngest girl to climb Everest.
American Jordan Romero, from Big Bear,
California, became the youngest boy at age
13 to reach the summit – also from the
Tibetan side — in 2010.
Malavath said her parents, impoverished
farmers from the southern state of Andhra
Pradesh, encouraged her during eight months
of training despite the fact that she had
never before been on a mountain. Her family
are dalits, once known as “untouchables,” at
the bottom of India’s ancient caste system.
The expedition was sponsored by the Andhra
Pradesh Social Welfare Residential
Educational Institution Society as part of its
program to encourage and help
underprivileged students in India.
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