Satyarup Summits Ojos del Salado after Climbing Vinson Massif, the last of the 'Seven Summits'

Dream Wanderlust | Jan 19 , 2018

Satyarup Siddhanta (34), an Indian climber from Bengal has recently completed his 'Seven Summits' Journey with the successful summit of Vinson Massif on 15th December, 2017. He completed all the seven summits within a span of 6 years. On 29th June, 2012 he reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the first of his 7-summits, followed by Mt. Elbrus (2013), Mt. Aconcagua (2014), Mont Blanc (2014), Mt. Denali (2015), Mt. Kosciuszko (2015), Mt Everest (2016), Carstensz Pyramid (2017) and finally Vinson Massif in 2017.

He is now at Chile on a series of expeditions to summit nearby peaks. He reached the summit of Ojos del Salado (6893m), the highest active volcano in the world on 15th January, 2018. Prior to his summit of del Salado, Satyarup skied all the way to the South Pole last degree for a span of six days.

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"It all started when I saw Mt. Everest in front of me when I was at Everest Base Camp during a trek in 2010. I didn't know mountaineering back then" said Satyarup Siddhanta from Copiapo just after returning from Ojos del Salado expedition.

"During my visit to Africa for climbing Kilimanjaro in 2012 after completing a formal mountaineering training from Darjeeling, I came to know about the term 'Seven Summits' in which Kilimanjaro is one of the seven members. Then I started dreaming about summitting all seven highest peaks of the seven continents of the world," he added.

Fund accumulation proved to be a major hurdle in Satyarup's journey of dream fulfilment. "Arranging fund has been a big challenge for me those days especially for Everest. But many people came forward and I could manage the balance amount" is what he has to say. When he missed the flight ticket for Antarctica in 2016, he planned to make it large. He did not restrict himself only to the Vinson Massif but also planned to visit Carstensz Pyramid where he experienced the terrific journey through the Jungle. "Its a remote place in West Papua in Indonesia. Since I wanted to explore the wilderness of the place I took the jungle route." Satyarup said. After several failed attempts to obtain sponsorship, Trip 360 and his alma mater, Sikkim Manipal University provided a sponsorship. Out of desperation arising from paucity of funds, Satyarup set several collectibles from his different summits for auction. His friends came forward and the remaining amount was raised through crowd funding. He also decided to climb the highest mountain of Chile.

Finally Satyarup set out for Antarctica from Chile on 2nd December, 2017. They reached the Base Camp of Vincent Massif where they had to encounter strong weather turbulence. Temperatures had gone down to -40 degrees. Just when they were about to reach the summit, weather conditions started to improve. "Circular rainbow appeared. Finally after climbing four to five false peaks we reached the final peak. I reached Vincent Massiff, the last of the 'Seven Summits'. My dream came true," Satyarup sighs with a relief. After taking a rest of three-four days he set out for South Pole. From 89 degrees at South Pole Satyarup set out for 111kms to South Pole last degree. "The view was amazing. It was infinite land all around meeting the horizon with no structures nearby," he exclaims in awe. For the next six days they kept on skiing. He would walk for eight hours everyday with a break of 10 minutes after an hour. Finally after six days they reached ceremonial South Pole and after skiing further 30m he reached the actual South Pole. On 3rd January, 2018 he reached Chile. From there Satyarup set out for Tres Cruces (6749m) to pay a tribute to legendary mountaineer, Malli Mastan Babu who was killed on Tres Cruces in 2015. Satyarup says, "after facing harsh climatic conditions and overcoming physical constraints, I turned back from 6400m because the main expedition to mountain del Salado was left. But I wish to come back and climb all the three Tres Cruces." Satyarup admits that the last part of del Salado was very technical and it involved technical rock climbing. Finally he managed to reach del Salado, the highest volcano in the world at 1:20pm local time on 15th January, 2018.