Everyone has dreams and goals. It is easy to dream and formulate a goal. But it takes consistent efforts and discipline to turn those goals and dreams into reality. Poorna Malavath is one such girl who defied all odds to prove something which seems impossible. She scaled Mount Everest when she was only 13 years old. She is the youngest female in the world who has reached this glorious summit.
Poorna was born in a small village in Telangana, India. It was a tribal area. Girls were married off when they were quite young. Her parents were farm laborers. Poorna did not want to get married at such a young age. For her education, she joined the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society. The secretary of the Society, Dr R S Praveen Kumar, spotted her talent. During extra curricular activities, she participated in rock climbing. For the first time in her life, she got to know that there is something known as ‘rock climbing’.
She was absolutely scared to see the huge rock. It seemed impossible to her that this rock could be climbed. But with the help of instructors, she was able to climb the rock and after that, her fear of climbing was gone. She started to excel at rock climbing and finally she was selected for Operation Everest. She trained for months in different places including Darjeeling and Ladakh. She learnt how to survive in freezing temperatures, techniques and skills to climb Everest.
They spent five days in the base camp and on the day of the climb, they got news of an avalanche at Everest. She was called to abandon her further climb and come back. But her determination was so high that she refused to come back. At mere 13 years of age, she carried oxygen cylinders and continued with her journey. A time came when she was totally exhausted, had difficulty in breathing and felt dizzy. But her will power was stronger than ever. In the death zone at Mount Everest, she came across dead bodies of mountaineers, pale as white, freezing in ice. It terrified her. But she was focused and determined towards her goal. At only 13 years and 10 Months of age, she reached the summit in 2014.
She made the impossible possible. With her passion, determination and will power, she summited the highest mountain on the earth at such a young age. This was just the beginning. She has summited many peaks such as Mount Kilimanjaro, 2016, Mount Elbrus, 2017, Mount Aconcagua, 2019, Mount Carstensz Pyramid, 2019, Mount Vinson Massif, 2019. Poorna’s story is breathtaking and inspires everyone who comes across it. Her grit and determination inspires everyone to follow their dreams and never stop.