Telangana mountaineer Anvitha Padamati scales Aconcagua, sets sights on new peaks

Anvitha Padamati
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

“I value the journey as much as the summit. People assume mountaineering is a cakewalk for me, but I always remind them —and myself — that each mountain is different and must be respected,” says Anvitha Padamati, a 27-year-old mountaineer and trainer from Bhongir (Bhuvanagiri), Telangana.

In January, she scaled Aconcagua in Argentina, the highest peak in the Americas at 6,961 metres above sea level. Her previous expeditions include Mount Elbrus in Russia, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Vinson Massif in Antarctica, and, closer to home, Everest, Manaslu, Rhenock, and Gori Chen. She now aims to climb Denali in Alaska and Mount Kosciuszko in Australia to complete the Seven Summits.

When not on an expedition, Anvitha trains students in rock climbing and mountaineering at the Transcend Academy of Rock Climbing (TRAC) in Bhongir and Gandikota. Established by mountaineer Shekhar Babu in 2012, these academies —run in collaboration with the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh tourism departments — also have mountaineers Poorna Malavath, Anand Kumar Sadhanapalli, and Raghvendra as principal trainers.

Anvitha and Richard were the two who summitted Aconcagua from a team of 10
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Bhongir Fort, with its towering 500-foot monolithic rock, is Anvitha’s home turf. Originally from Errambelli, a village near Bhongir, she discovered rock climbing at 17. “My parents, Madhusudhan Reddy and Chandrakala, moved to Bhongir for my education due to poor bus connectivity from our village. In 2015, we enquired about rock climbing during the holidays, and I joined a five-day course out of curiosity. Shekhar Babu was my coach,” she recalls.

That training had a lasting impact beyond climbing. “My father noticed a positive change in my focus, time management, and coordination with people,” she adds. Rock climbing opened up new possibilities. “We lived on limited resources. My father was an agriculturist, and my mother taught at an anganwadi school. We couldn’t afford holidays or leisure activities, but climbing gave me something new to explore.”

A few months later, she joined a basic mountaineering course in West Bengal — her first trip outside Telangana. “I had always been fit due to athletics in school, which helped during training. I also realised that when you’re eager to learn, people respond positively, despite language and cultural barriers.”

Alongside completing her B.Com in Bhongir and later an MBA at Andhra Mahila Sabha School of Informatics, Hyderabad, Anvitha honed her trekking, climbing, and mountaineering skills.

The team that was part of an expedition to Aconcagua
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Her training paid off in 2021 when she hoisted the Indian flag at Mount Elbrus’s base camp after scaling peaks in Ladakh, Rhenock in Sikkim, and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. “I trained with precision, gradually acclimatising to higher altitudes and colder conditions.”

These expeditions fuelled her passion for leading and training mountaineering teams. “I learned troubleshooting, rescuing team members, packing for expeditions, documenting key learnings, and planning better.”

Everest and Manaslu were among her most memorable climbs, as was Gori Chen, where she led a team of eight TRAC climbers alongside the Indian Army. In January, she was among two out of 10 climbers to summit Aconcagua in Argentina.

Reflecting on her decade-long journey, Anvitha highlights the importance of starting early. “I began climbing early, while Poorna started at 12 (Poorna was the youngest female to reach the summit of the Everest at 13, in 2014). It made us realise that younger students have an advantage. Since 2021, our academies have reached out to schools, conducting 1-, 2-, and 5-day team-building and leadership sessions. So far, we have trained nearly 10,000 students, and there’s scope to do much more.”