Mastan Babu Malli (3 September 1974 – 24 March 2015) was an Indian mountaineer. He is best known for his 2006 world record of climbing the
Seven Summits
The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven traditional continents. Climbing to the summit of all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first achieved on 30 April 1985 by Richard Bass. Climbing the Seven Summits a ...
in the shortest span of time at that point - a total of 172 days with the first climb on 19 January 2006 and the seventh on 10 July 2006. This feat made him the first Indian and South Asian to climb all seven summits, the first Indian to climb
Vinson Massif
Vinson Massif () is a large mountain massif in Antarctica that is long and wide and lies within the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains. It overlooks the Ronne Ice Shelf near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. The massif is located ab ...
and the first Indian to climb
Carstensz Pyramid
Puncak Jaya (; literally "Glorious Peak") or Carstensz Pyramid, Mount Jayawijaya or Mount Carstensz () on the island of New Guinea, with an elevation of , is the highest mountain peak of an island on Earth. The mountain is located in the Sudi ...
. While his record for climbing the seven summits has since been improved upon, his record of attaining each summit on a different day of the week still stands today.
Mastan Babu died on 24 March 2015 in Andes mountains after getting caught in bad weather post a successful attempt of Tres Cruces Sur Summit. The continent-spanning journey that began with a schoolboy drawing inspiration from a Sainik School senior who had died while nearing the top of Mount Everest thus ended high on another demanding peak in the Andes. In between, he settled down for brief periods to earn degrees and a living.
Early life and education
Born on 3 September 1974 at Gandhi Janasangam village of Sangam Mandal in Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh to a Hindu family of Malli Mastanayya and Subbamma, Mastan Babu was their fifth child. He was amongst the first in his farming family to receive formal education. He is said to have been named after Mastan Swamy, a saint. He studied at
Sainik School, Korukonda
Sainik School at Korukonda informally began on 10 September 1961. The school was formally founded by its first Principal (school), principal, Commander Trevor De Almeida, on 18 January 1962, when the first batch of 205 students had joined.
...
,
Vijayanagaram
Vizianagaram district is one of the six districts in the Uttarandhra region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh with its headquarters located at Vizianagaram. The district was once the part of ancient Kalinga.Saripilli Dibbilingeswara temple ...
district.,
Andhra pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
state during 1985–1992. After completing his B. E. in Electrical Engineering from
National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur
National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur (NIT Jamshedpur or NITJSR), is an Institute of National Importance for Technical Education located at Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India. Established as a Regional Institute of Technology on 15 August 1960 ...
in 1996, Malli went on to earn an M.Tech. in electronics from
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) is a public institute of technology established by the Government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Established in 1951, the institute is the first of the IITs to be established ...
in 1998, distinguishing himself in various sports and adventure activities at both institutes.
Following a three-year stint as a software engineer, with
Satyam Computers
Mahindra Satyam (formerly Satyam Computer Services Limited) was an Indian information technology (IT) services company based in Hyderabad, India, offering software development, system maintenance, packaged software integration and engineering ...
, Malli was selected for the two-year Post Graduate Diploma in Management(PGDM) program at
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM Calcutta or IIM-C) is a public business school located in Joka, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was the first Indian Institute of Management to be established, and has been recognized as an Institut ...
, graduating in 2004. An early inspiration for his turn towards mountaineering is said to have been the statue in his school of Lt. M.Uday Bhaskar Rao, a former student who was among those who died during the Indian Army's Everest expedition of 1985. In IIM Calcutta, he was given Dr. B.C. Roy award, for his outstanding contributions towards enriching campus life.
Malli's untiring efforts to increase the fitness levels of fellow-students and to institutionalize adventure activities led to the foundation of IIM-C's Adventure Club in 2003. It continues to hold many events, on and off campus.
Initiatives, achievements and awards
Malli was one of the recipients of the annual Distinguished Alumnus Award presented by IIM-C in November 2011.
He also received the Army Commander's Commendation in 2007 and the 2006 Conjee Rustumjee Cohoujee Bey Award given by the Friends of South Asian American Communities in California (FOSACC) for outstanding youth contribution.
After completing climbing Mount Everest, he moved towards Mt.Kailash but he didn't step on it cause it is a scary mountain. He continued to inspire countless students in his former schools and colleges by his record-breaking pursuits, writing to them, participating in alumni meets, and holding courses on hiking, high altitude trekking, Yoga, Vipassana meditation, etc.
A proud Sainikorian, Malli paid tributes to his hero, Lt. Rao, and planted his school flag during his Everest trips. While many of his expeditions were unguided, they were always preceded by meticulous planning.
After the quick (172 days) summiting of the highest peak in each of the seven continents in 2006, Malli continued to set new benchmarks of physical and mental endurance and excellence.
In June and July 2007, he accomplished through trekking and climbing a high-altitude traverse of the four major Hindu dhams of Uttarakhand. Between 21 October and 3 November of the same year, he executed his plan to run 14 half marathons in 14 days in 14 different states, during which he received support from the Indian Army. Before the end of the year, he had run "8 full Marathons and 3 half marathons in 13 days, spanning 10 Indian states".
In 2008, he completed a "75 day High altitude trek from the Mount Everest region to Kanchenjunga, climbing all the high passes between them, covering a total of approximately 1,100km of the Himalayan terrain.".
Through his 2,000-kilometre, 132-day trans-Himalayan expedition from Mount Everest to Mount Kailash, Malli wanted to bring to everyone's attention the damage being done to both hills and plains by global warming and also to help in mapping the change in glacier topography.
South America, and especially its peaks, were a source of fascination for Malli, who travelled there often after first summiting Mt. Aconcagua in 2005.
Malli relished the opportunity of standing at top of peaks and of realizing the relative insignificance of humans when compared with awe-inspiring Nature.
Seven Summits
In 2006, he completed the
Seven Summits
The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven traditional continents. Climbing to the summit of all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first achieved on 30 April 1985 by Richard Bass. Climbing the Seven Summits a ...
, the highest peak in each of the seven continents, in a span 172 days, which was also a world record during that time. He climbed each summit on a different day of the week.
Awards and recognition
* Distinguished Alumnus Award by
Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta in 2011
Final climb
After climbing Mt
Aconcagua
Aconcagua () is a mountain in the Principal Cordillera of the Andes mountain range, in Mendoza Province, Argentina. It is the List of highest mountains on Earth, highest mountain in the Americas, the highest outside Asia, and the highest in the ...
solo in 2005, Malli visited South America a number of times. He developed a special liking for the Andes and he climbed a number of Andean peaks. He became fluent in Spanish so that he could easily communicate with the locals. He wanted to climb the 10 highest peaks of the Andes.
Malli decided to climb Tres Cruces Sur summit (6,749 m) of
Nevado Tres Cruces
Nevado Tres Cruces is a massif of volcanic origin in the Andes Mountains on the border of Argentina and Chile. It has two main summits, Tres Cruces Sur at and Tres Cruces Centro at and a third minor summit, Tres Cruces Norte . Tres Cruces Sur ...
on 23 March 2015 before heading back for India on 28 March 2015. Weather deteriorated when he was descending after the successful summit of Trés Cruces.
Death
Malli went missing on 24 March 2015 and died outside his pitched tent on the slopes of Cerro
Tres Cruces Sur
Nevado Tres Cruces is a massif of volcanic origin in the Andes Mountains on the border of Argentina and Chile. It has two main summits, Tres Cruces Sur at and Tres Cruces Centro at and a third minor summit, Tres Cruces Norte . Tres Cruces Sur i ...
in the Andes. Malli, who was climbing solo, was caught up in the exceptionally bad weather, which also led to the
2015 Northern Chile floods and mudflow
The 2015 Northern Chile floods were a series of mudflows that affected much of northern Chile, product of flash floods from different rivers due to unseasonal heavy rains in the area, causing severe damage in several towns of the Antofagasta, Atac ...
, in the Andes. With all access routes to the mountain being cut, it took close to 10 days for the rescue teams to reach him. His body was found on 3 April 2015. He was supposed to have returned to India by month-end after adding the last of the ten highest peaks in the Andes to his list of conquests.
The PM of India
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
paid homage to Malli Mastan Babu. The Chief Minister of
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
N. Chandrababu Naidu condoled his death.
See also
*
Indian summiters of Mount Everest - Year wise
The first attempts to summit Mount Everest by Indians were in 1960. The first Indians to reach the summit were a group led by Captain M.S. Kohli in 1965. 422 Indians made a total of 465 attempts between 1965 and 2018. These include 43 repeat at ...
*
*
List of Mount Everest records of India
This is list of Mount Everest records of Indian nationals have achieved.
Records
* Chhanda Gayen became the first Indian to climb to the summit of any two Eight-thousanders - Mount Everest and Mount Lhotse in one go on 18 May 2013. She comple ...
*
List of Mount Everest records
This article lists different records related to Mount Everest. One of the most commonly sought after records is a "summit", to reach the highest elevation point on Mount Everest.
Records
Highest number of times to reach the summit
Other ...
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Babu, Malli Mastan
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta alumni
IIT Kharagpur alumni
People from Nellore
Sportspeople from Andhra Pradesh
Indian mountain climbers
Indian summiters of Mount Everest
1974 births
2015 deaths
Summiters of the Seven Summits