Search for missing ace Indian mountaineer Malli Mastan Babu ends in tragedy. Mastan Babu who went missing since March 24 from Andes Mountains in South America, has been found dead by authorities.
An announcement on Facebook page ‘Rescue Malli Mastan Babu’ created by his friends and well wishers to raise funds for his rescue mission read ‘Mountains retained its favourite child.. R.I.P Malli Mastan Babu’.
After the news broke out Twitter is flooded with tweets to mourn the death of the renowned mountaineer.
Extremely saddened “Mountaineer Malli Mastan Babu found dead”. He was a big inspiration for all of us wanting to follow our dreams. @iimc— Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) April 4, 2015
RIP Malli Mastan Babu, one of the most intense mountaineers I ever knew. Not many can love mountains like him. Will miss you, buddy!— Rajesh Kalra (@rajeshkalra) April 4, 2015
Forty-year-old Babu, a native of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, was on a sole expedition to climb up mountains between Argentina and Chile in South America. His solo expedition began on March 24 and Malli was scheduled to return to the base camp at Cerro Tres Cruceson on March 25. The weather deteriorated soon afterwards and he didn’t return to the base camp. Governments of both the countries had sent their rescue teams to look for Malli.
An alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur and IIM-Calcutta, Babu had taken to mountain climbing after working as a software engineer for 3 years. Malli had climbed the Seven Summits in just 172 days. He is the first Indian to summit Mt Vinson Massif, the tallest peak in Antarctica and the first person from Andhra Pradesh to scale the Everest.
