People who have made India proud

Malli Mastan Babu an IIT KGP and IIM C alumnus left his engineering job of 3 years and went after his passion of mountaineering. This is what he has achieved and made India proud. He hails from Nellore, Andhra Pradesh.

"The incredible feat of Malli Mastan Babu in scaling the highest peaks  of the seven continents in 172 days, the fastest so far, will inspire  millions of our youth. On behalf of Sir Edmund Hillary and other  trustees I send you our hearty congratulations.” – Capt. M.S. Kohli,  Chairman – Himalayan Environment Trust 

 He is best known for his 2006 world record creating feat of climbing each continent's highest peak (popularly called seven summits) in the shortest span of time at that point - a total of 172 days with the first climb on January 19, 2006 and the seventh on July 10, 2006. This feat made him the fastest seven summiteer in the world at that time, the first Indian and South Asian to climb all seven summits, the first Indian to climb Vinson Massifand the first Indian to climb Carstensz Pyramid. While his record for climbing the seven summits has since been improved upon, his record of climbing each summit on a different day of the week still stands today.

After climbing Mt Aconcagua 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 14 highest peaks of the Andes.

Malli decided to climb Tres Cruces Sur summit (6,749 m) of Nevado Tres Cruces on 23 March 2015 before heading back for India on 28 March 2015. Weather deteriorated when he was descending after successful summit of trés cruces.

Malli went missing on 24 March 2015 and died inside his pitched tent on the slopes of Cerro Tres Cruces Sur 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, 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 paid homage to Malli Mastan Babu. The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N. Chandrababu Naidu condoled his death.