Six Indian climbers reach Mt Everest in first summit of season

Six Indian climbers today reached the top of Mt Everest, the world's highest mountain, becoming the first group to successfully summit the peak this season.
The six Indian climbers and 10 Nepali Sherpas stood atop the 8,850-metre peak this morning, with the first climber reaching the summit at 8.20 am local time as others followed, said officials at the expedition organiser Transcendental Adventures.
Suresh Babu, Durga Rao Kunja, Bharat Thammineni, Krishna Rao Vooyaka, Satya Rao Kare and Nagaraju Sundarana - along with the Sherpas - reached the peak from the northern Tibetan side.
Sundarana, a marathon runner hailing from Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh, was the first India climber to reach the peak, according to Transcend Adventures' Facebook page. His parents are day labourers.

Satya Rao, the son of a fisherman, followed Sundarana to reach the peak 20 minutes later.
The team's last member reached the summit at 9:20 am.

Most of the Indian climbers were from Andhra Pradesh and come from low-income groups, according to the post.
On Thursday, nine Sherpas opened a climbing route to the summit point becoming the year's first team to climb Mt Everest from Tibet side in the spring season.
About 200 climbers along with their support staff will attempt their final summit pushes on Mt Everest from the northern side in the next couple of days, expedition organisers say.