18-year-old Kaamya Karthikeyan on Saturday, December 27, 2025, set a new record by becoming the second-youngest woman and the youngest Indian ski-racer to reach the South Pole. She covered the journey in a distance of 115 kilometres with the temperature around -30℃.
Her achievement adds to her previous milestones, including conquering Mount Everest at the age of 17 in 2024. She was the youngest Indian ski racer and second-youngest female to do it. Her achievements also include scaling the Aconcagua in 2020, going to Europe’s Elbrus in 2018, and later in 2022 completing the non-American ascent of North America’s Denali. In 2024, she climbed to Mount Vinson in Antarctica, which got her the Seven Summits in record time.
Karthikeyan is currently on the quest to become the youngest person ever to achieve the Explorers Grand Slam. This is the ultimate adventurer to climb the highest peak on all seven continents and ski to reach both the North and South Pole, and climb all the Seven Summits, including Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson and Pancak Jaya/Kościuszko.
Karthikeyan is the daughter of naval officer Commander S Karthikeyan and Lavanya Karthikeyan.
After achieving the remarkable feat, she received a congratulatory post from the Indian Navy. Referring to her as an alumna of Navy Children’s School, the Indian Navy made an appreciation post while highlighting her role as an Indian ski-racer.
An Indian Navy spokesperson wrote on X, “Kaamya’s extraordinary achievement is sure to inspire many of her generation to push beyond their boundaries. Indian Navy wishes her fair winds and clear skies on the final milestone of conquering the NorthPole.”
Karthikeyan’s journey to the South Pole highlights her skills in performing in such a cold environment in such increased temperatures with frequent blizzards and snowfalls, and hard ice crystals falling down from above. In addition to that, the hard ice ridges made it a bit difficult to perform skiing.
In these extreme weather conditions, climbing the South Pole showcased Karthikeyan’s fitness level necessary in these conditions, while, the mental preparation is also important for a ski racer in climbing one of the Earth’s coldest areas.
