Ace Indian mountaineer goes missing in South America

Ace Indian mountaineer Malli Mastan Babu, who flew down to South America to climb up mountains between Argentina and Chile, has gone missing.

Malli Mastan Babu, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, was on a solo expedition in the Andes.

His solo expedition began on March 24 and Malli was scheduled to return to the base camp at Cerro Tres Cruceson on March 25.

Unfortunately, he didn't return to the base camp till date and all attempts of communicating with him has failed.

Spokesperson of Malli's friends and family, Saurabh Uboweja told Hindustan Times, "The authorities did a brief rescue mission on March 25 but that did not result in anything fruitful.

"Since the weather at the time (on that side if the mountain) was bad, the authorities thought he might have climbed down the Chile side. But beyond that there was no rescue operation for two days."

The 40-year-old had climbed the Seven Summits in just 172 days.

He is the first Indian to climb through all the passes between Mt. Sagarmatha (Everest) and Mt. Khangchendzonga.

Malli Mastan Babu is an alumnus of IIM, Calcutta and IIT-Kharagpur.