The only Sri Lankans to have summited Mount Everest, Jayanthi Kuru Uthumpala and Johann Peries have set their sights on another endeavour. They now plan on taking on the Seven Summits Challenge which is regarded as one of the toughest exploration and mountaineering accomplishments.
At the peak of their lives; the story of the Everest duo
A peak that many dream of scaling, few try and only..
Jayanthi created history to become the first Sri Lankan to summit Mount Everest in 2016. Johann who was her partner had to turn back meters away from the summit as the oxygen ran out of his tank but showed tremendous perseverance to successfully summit the world’s tallest mountain peak on his second attempt last year.
The ‘high’ achieving duo have now set out to trek 6,962m Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, the tallest mountain in the world outside the Himalayas. They will depart the Island on the 31st of January. This will be part of their attempt to complete the Seven Summits which comprises of the highest mountains of each of the seven continents in the world. First achieved by Richard Bass in 1985, the seven summits are a grueling task. Having summited Mount Kilimanjaro in 2014 as a duo and Mount Everest, this will be the third of mountain they will undertake from the Seven Summits.
Not even a year after summiting Mount Everest on his second attempt, Johann Peries is all geared to take on the Argentinian giant. Speaking to ThePapare.com Johann explained the work that has gone behind the scene
Read: Johann summits Mt. Everest
“Training process has been similar to the preparation for the Everest climb, we have prepared ourselves both physically and mentally, it’s been a hard-grueling run up in preparation to this. We commenced training immediately after I came back from Everest, Jayanthi also wanted to do something together and we believe that we are well conditioned to take on the challenge”
Jayanthi Kuru-Uthumpala could not hide her delight of being reunited with her climbing partner having last climbed together in 2016.
“I am really very excited, since 2016 I have been itching to go back and climb again since Johann did Everest in 2018. When he got back I asked him whether he will be up for a climb in 2019 and he jumped at it. Aconcagua mountain has two routes, we chose the more technical and challenging route where we have to climb along the Polish glacier to attempt the summit. There are many factors that might come in the way of us summiting, specially the heavy winds as this mountain is close to the ocean but we have prepared well and let’s keep the fingers crossed. I always enjoy climbing with Johann and cannot wait to commence our next adventure.”
ThePapare.com will be following the mountaineering duo every step of the way and will be bringing you the latest update on their progress. Join us to wish Johann and Jayanthi all the very best in their latest adventure.
