The ice-capped dizzying heights of Mt. Kilimanjaro appeared like a dream before the four dentists from the city who summitted Africa’s highest peak in September this year.
The dentists, Varaprasad, Sreedhar Bitra, Sudhakar Korukonda and Suresh Gorantla, were a part of a 12-member team - eight of whom came from Telangana - to achieve the feat.
The bone-rattling journey began from Rongai route in Tanzania and took them five days to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest free standing mountain and one of the seven most challenging summits in the world standing tall at 5,895 metres.
While thousands of climbers have made it to the base camp wanting to conquer Mt. Kilimanjaro, a majority of them have had past mountaineering experiences. But for the four dentists, it was a leap of faith and a desire to explore nature in its purest form that led them to embark on their first ever mountaineering expedition.
“The only other trek we did was at our backyard in Kambalakonda!” they said. To improve their stamina and endurance, the four-member team would climb Kailasagiri every day four months ahead of their tour. “But when we started the climb, we realised what a Herculean effort it is to scale the mountain standing on the Earth’s equatorial waistline,” said Dr. Sreedhar. Incidentally, two other members from their team of 12 had to abort the trek due to health issues.
Armed with six layers of clothing, all necessary mountaineering equipments and trek guides to help them navigate through the precarious trek route, the four trekkers braved severe weather conditions with temperatures ranging from -7 to -10 degree Celsius.
“The weather was very unpredictable. One moment the sun would emerge and within minutes clouds would descend and then a spell of snowfall,” said Dr. Suresh, who is also an avid photographer.
The last day of the trek was the most challenging part of the expedition.
The biggest challenge they faced was just before 100-150 ft from the final destination when they felt breathless. “We trekked for more than 12 hours at a stretch on the fifth day to get to the peak.
It was so exhausting and tiring that once we were up there, we were somewhat disoriented! It felt like a dream to see the glaciers and snow capped mountains around us,” said Dr. Sreedhar.
The air is thin at the peak and the trekkers could hardly be there for 15 minutes before they started the descent.
“A slow climb is advised to get acclimatised to the high altitudes. The scenic beauty of the walkway towards the peak is really worth experiencing,” they said.
