Cycling, mountaineering, marathon: Meet Aritra Roy of Tripura who just scaled Mt Everest

Roy also said he wants to join the Armed Forces through the Territorial Army, by fulfilling the basic condition of two months of mandatory training per year.

Speaking about his interest in mountaineering, Roy said, “No one in my family was into mountaineering, but my father, Sanjoy Kumar Roy, was the football coach of Tripura. So, the blood of sportsmanship was always there inside. I did easy to medium treks and from that I slowly gained interest in climbing high and, thus, started my journey into the high peaks.”

Recounting his journey of scaling Mt Everest, Roy said he faced his first hurdle when his bicycle gear broke down at Sonapur due to bad roads.

He got some much-needed help from Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, who made makeshift arrangements for the mountaineer to reach the nearest repair shop.

“This timely help made me cross the place before daylight. After reaching Nepal, the owner of my expedition company, Da Dende, helped me rent good mountaineering gear at a rather affordable price,” he said.

Roy became the first in Tripura to have scaled the Everest as part of a triathlon, (Express Photo)

Normally, Roy said, a proper set of whole mountaineering gear can set one back by around Rs 6 lakh, but he got to rent it at Rs 50,000.

Roy also thanked his sherpa, Karma Sherpa, for ensuring his safety during his journey to the peak of Everest.

Roy said, “My personal sherpa took very good care of me, starting from proper meals at the proper time, ensuring my health was always good. Most importantly, I was stuck at Camp 4 (8,000 m) for more than 24 hours due to very bad weather and high winds. He brought me down safely without a scratch. He is my angel god.”

Speaking about his next aim, Roy said, “My target is to scale the highest summits of seven different continents. Out of these, I’ve already summited Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa and Mt Elbrus in 2023.”

Roy also thanked the Assam Rifles for their support. “…training, gear, roadside support, and accommodation and food were all provided by them. I got the confidence to climb Mount Everest in 2025. But I wanted to make it a bit different, so I planned it in a way that no Indian had done in the past.”

Roy said in a social media post that there were times when he contemplated quitting the journey to the peak of Mt Everest.

Roy said in a social media post that there were times when he contemplated quitting the journey to the peak of Mt Everest.

“The reason being, I heard of a few deaths of fellow climbers on the way up. Even when I reached Camp 4 at broad daylight, I looked towards Everest, thought and asked myself ‘how will I climb this mighty peak which is standing tall in front of me!’ Even from Camp 4, it looked huge. This very thought of how to climb was with me till the moment we started the final push at 8 pm on 18th (May 18) night,” he said.

Crediting his success to a “divine power”, Roy said, “…I can say that I now believe that there is a divine power which pulls you, holding your hand to make you lay your hands on what you have dreamt. Without this power walking side by side, I would not have gotten to 8,848.86 metres. I am still figuring out how to soak in what I have done… I should be the happiest now, but here I am still wondering, did I just put a tick to my life’s greatest dream?”

With four more peaks remaining to conquer among the Seven Summits, this Bengali IT professional-turned-mountainaineer from Tripura has now set his eyes on Mt Aconcagua in Argentina.

However, he added that he might need to shell out close to Rs 6 lakh to scale the highest peak in South America and is trying to find sponsors to achieve the goal.