IPS Officer Aparna Kumar: Lucknow to Antarctica's highest peak

She is not just only an IPS Officer but also country's first civil servant to scale Mount Vinson Massif, the highest peak in the Antarctica. On a sunny Sunday when ordinary people were doing their regular stuffs, Lucknow-based IPS officer Aparna Kumar got influenced to reach up to a height, literally, she was 16,050 ft above sea level, in a uniformed way.

Aparna is a DIG telecom in Lucknow, had begun on the Antarctic expedition on January 5, and accomplished the journey on January 17. Whereas becoming an IPS officer in the country involves a lot of a mixture of hardwork and dedication, from where on earth she found the zeal to achieve another peak, she only knows.

Here are some facts to know about her journey from Lucknow to Antarctica:

• Student of the batch of 2002 IPS, and is currently the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Telecom in Lucknow, Aparna is the first woman officer of any all-India services to have climbed up Antarctica's highest peak, Mount Vinson Massif.

• She was always fascinated about mountains. So to chase that dream, she got into a basic mountaineering course at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports for a month in Manali in October 2013. Having been fascinated even more after that, she had done an advance course in July 2014.

• Accompanied by a 10-member team of mountaineers from various countries, Aparna had made her frosty journey successful and hoisted the Tricolour and the flag of the Uttar Pradesh Police Service on Mount Vinson Massif on January 17 when the area was iced over in -35 degrees temperatures.

• The group was disconnected from each other for nine days. After suffering from mild frostbite and losing over six kilos, Aparna is now returned to India on February 5 and currently recovering gradually.

• Some of her greatest summits are: Climbing up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in August 2014, the highest peak in Africa. Same year in November, she was on the Carstensz Pyramid peak in West Papuan province of Indonesia, the highest peak in Australia and Oceania region. Rewarded again as the first IPS officer to achieve the feat.

• In March 2015, she was awarded the 'Rani Lakshmi Bai Puraskar' by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav for her achievements, and for creating a history to follow for other women.

• On the Republic Day, 2016, Aparna was also honoured with the special DGP Commendation Disc for her notable achievements.

• The IPS officer has now scaled 5 of the 7 summits considered the most challenging for mountaineers in the world.

• The energetic mountaineer is now targeting to set foot on the Mount Everest in April-May, and Mount McKinley in Alaska in July-August.

Seeing her records and enthusiasm, we are proud to have a multifaceted officer like here. We wish her best of luck.