Meet Arjun Kumar Thapa – The First Indian Man To Climb Mount Everest And Reach The South Pole

When you meet seasoned veterans who’ve served time atop the Siachen Glacier, you sense an air of mental toughness and physical stability that you hardly notice in other people. That’s what it does to people, it hardens them. Just like Hawaldar Arjun Kumar Thapa.

Arjun Kumar Thapa is the only Indian man to have scaled the top of Mount Everest as well as touch the South Pole.

“You get used to living at a glacier and it also toughens you mentally for any hardship. There can be no better preparation than that.”

Thapa is a Hawaldar with the Gorkha Regiment of the Indian army. He recently completed a climb atop Mount Everest as part of the Indian Army Massive Everest Expedition: 2016. He was part of a 30-man team. Before this, Thapa had also travelled to the South Pole in Antarctica as part of an 11-man team. They had covered the distance of 1170 km in 50 days of skiing.

 

Thapa and his team had to ski for 50 days to scale the south pole and remaining fit was a challenge.

They had to sleep during the six months of daylight, which was a difficult task. Thapa said, “For the first week, I couldn’t even sleep in Antarctica. But then you get tired and you start sleeping.” About the Everest climb, he said that even though they had ample time for recovery, there were still many elements of danger. Speaking about both experiences, Thapa said,

 

Thapa said that his time atop the Siachen Glacier proved valuable as he was prepared for the frigid cold at both Mt. Everest as well as Antarctica.

Thapa served two-year periods twice on the Siachen Glacier, once on the Southern Glacier with his battalion from 2006-08 and the other at the Siachen Battle School from 2013-15. He says these were influential in his good health during the South Pole expedition and the Everest climb.

Thapa now plans to travel to the North Pole to be the first Indian man to complete the coveted Three Poles Challenge.

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All images and news source: Indian Express
Cover image sources: 1 & 2