Tribal boy from Vizag scales Mount Everest

VISAKHAPATNAM: Of the six youth from Andhra Pradesh, who comprised the first Indian team this season to scale the Mount Everest (8850 metres) on Saturday from Northern Tibet side, Nagaraju Sundarana hailing from Sabbavaram in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh, was the first to set foot on the World’s Highest peak at 8:20 am.

A short while after he came down to the base camp happy and excited, Nagaraju tells TOI from China, “I am happy to scale the mountain from Tibet side. This was my first and new experience for me. I enjoyed that moment of standing on the top of the world. I will next attempt to summit the Everest from the South End that is Nepal side.”

Just a couple of days ago, Nagaraju and the team members were apprehensive that they may have to abort the climb as the weather suddenly turned adverse with stormy winds raging at about 2 am-3 am, the morning of the final climb onto the peak.

But they braved all odds and in the words of their team leader Bharat Thammineni, “Enduring the hostile weather and crossing several dead bodies along the trek route, we finally reached the summit.”
The six summiteers hail from economically weak families and the state government sponsored their trek, which was organised by Transcend Adventures. But what sets Nagaraju apart is that this 20-year-old is an adventure sports lover is a marathon-runner as well and belongs to an extremely poor family. His parents Eswar Rao Sandarana and Lakshmi Sandarana are daily wage earners by profession.
But there is no stopping him. Having participated in marathons in various places such as Karnataka and Amravathi, he averred, “I am also looking forward to participating in the Iron Man contest in the near future.”

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/tribal-boy-from-vizag-scales-mount-everest/articleshow/58704848.cms