Kaamya Karthikeyan: The teen prodigy scripting history with every peak she summits

Kaamya, who is among the first cohort of athletes supported by the Reliance Foundation who are competing in sports that are a part of the Winter Olympics, already has a host of historic firsts to her name with the latest addition to the illustrious list coming this month.

In December 2024, the ski mountaineer became the youngest girl in the world to conquer the seven summits challenge. The seven summits refer to the highest mountain peak in all seven continents. Kaamya achieved this illustrious feat by summiting Mount Vinson Massif in Antarctica on 24th December.
The seven summits that Kaamya has already scaled are Mounts Kilimanjaro (Africa), Denali (North America), Aconcagua (South America), Everest (Asia), Vinson (Antarctica), Elbrus (Europe) and Kosciuszko (Australia).

Kaamya is a student of the Navy Children School in Mumbai and has been hiking for a decade now having started at the age of just seven. Speaking about the process she follows, she said, “Being there on Antarctica itself is such a huge privilege. Very few people get to even set foot on the continent. Mountaineering is 40 per cent physical, 40 per cent mental, 10 per cent preparation and the rest 10 per cent is up to the mountain.”

At 16, she became the youngest Indian ever and the second youngest in the world to scale Mt. Everest, the highest peak in the world, from the South side in May earlier this year.

Kaamya gets her love for trekking from her father, S Karthikeyan, a commander in the Indian Navy, who has been an avid trekker for many years now. His many treks left three-year old Kaamya wondering what it was about the mountains that kept calling her father to them.

Her mother, Lavanya, was the first who she went with for her first trek at the age of just seven and it was love at first sight for Kaamya with the mountains. Her parents have been her biggest support system, with all of her milestones being achieved in the company of at least one of them. Her mom, in fact, only started trekking to support and encourage Kaamya.

A resident of Mumbai, Kaamya was in awe of the Sahyadris, a mountain range that stretches along the state of Maharashtra, where she would often go for weekend trails as a child. “When I started out, it was like going on a family vacation for me without any distractions and no network connectivity. You’re just there and bonding with your parents. That is what interested me initially. Now, when I go on international treks, I climb with people from all nationalities and you get to know a lot about different cultures. Most importantly, the mountains teach you how to be humble,” Kaamya summarises.

Kaamya is also conscious about climate change and wants to be a role model for others by inspiring them to push themselves and challenge their limits while trying to have a positive ecological impact. Still in school, Kaamya will be appearing for her board exams next year.

She has now set her sights firmly on completing the Explorer’s Grand Slam, to reach the North and South Pole after completing the Seven Summits Challenge, which she aims to do in the upcoming year. In the long run, she wants to represent India at the Winter Olympics, having already won multiple medals at the Khelo India Winter Games in 2024. She has also been selected as part of Team India for the Asian Winter Games in February 2025, which will be her next major assignment, one she has already started preparations for.