Two students from the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS) officially managed to scale the highest mountain in Europe, Mt. Elbrus on Thursday.
Sixteen-year-old Sri Vidya, from a social welfare residential school at Alair, and Malavath Poorna, currently studying at a residential degree college in Ibrahimpatan, completed the trek successfully.
This is not the first taste of success for Poorna as she had already achieved the feat of being the youngest girl to scale Mt Everest, at age 13, in 2014.
"We are excited to share with you that today at 7:30 am (Russian Time), Sri Vidya and Poorna reached the tip of Mt Elbrus, the highest peak of Europe. For Poorna it is third highest peak in row. Earlier she scaled Mt Everest (Asia) and Mt Kilimanjaro (Africa)," their mentor and TSWREIS secretary RS Praveen Kumar said.
The Hindu quoted Poorna as saying, “I have so far conquered three highest mountain peaks in the three continents of the world — Mt. Everest in Asia, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa, and Mt. Elbrus in Europe. My aim is to conquer the top peaks in all seven continents.”
Poorna's hails from a tribal hamlet in Telangana's Nizamabad district, and the team had begun their expedition from Hyderabad on June 21, while Vidya is a native of Nalgonda district.
Apart from Poorna and Vidya, others who were part of the team included U Raghunath Reddy (28), a native of Tadepalli in Guntur district, Satya Rao (20) a native of Bangarupalem village in Visakhapatnam district and Varsha Rahul (28) from Pune, the Times of India reported.
"As a mark of tribute, I hoisted the portrait of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on the top of the Mt Elbrus. The chief minister sanctioned 53 welfare residential degree colleges for women and men which no other state in India has done before," Vidya was quoted as saying.
The team also hoisted the Indian national flag on top of the peak, and sang the national anthem.