Kolkata: Arpita Patra, a city-based climber, became the first Bengali woman to climb the highest volcanic peak in the world, Ojos Del Salado (22,615 ft), on the Chile-Argentina border on Mar 7. Patra earlier scaled four more volcanic peaks.A faculty member of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Patra tried Ojos Del Salado a year back. “I was preparing for Mt Aconcagua and thought of giving it a try. I couldn’t make it but I learned from the mistakes,” said Patra over the phone from Chile.She started from Copiapo in Chile on Feb 26 and headed for a few climbs to acclimatise herself. She climbed Laguna Verde (more than 14,000 ft) and Nevado San Francisco (more than 19,700 ft) to get a hang of high altitudes. “I decided to take a rest for a day before I started for Ojos Del Salado. I did a climb till 6,300 metres (20,660 ft), primarily to further acclimatise myself. The acclimatisation process is very important for this peak, as it demands rapid acclimatisation during ascent,” said Patra.The preparation for the final push from the base camp started on Mar 6. Since the volcano, located in the Atacama Desert, is characterised by an extremely arid and high-altitude climate, it requires a very high level of fitness to tackle physical fatigue. Patra started from the base camp at 2 am local time on Mar 7. “It was very cold and windy. I reached the Caldera area by midnight. I knew that the tough zone was about to come,” said Patra.“The 50-metre stretch before the summit is very steep and quite a difficult one to climb at that altitude. Scrambling through a 50-metre steep slope may sound easy, but it is very challenging at nearly 7,000-metre altitude amid cold and strong winds. Physical fatigue starts to set in by that time,” said Satyarup Siddhanta, the Guinness record-holder climber who reached the Ojos Del Salado peak in 2018.“I reached the summit at around 3.45 pm local time (nearly midnight in India) on Mar 7. I was having a headache and feeling nauseated. But the view from the peak made me forget every challenge I faced,” Patra said.
