Dehradun, When we last connected in January this year, Aparna Kumar was training hard for what was her next mission, Mount Denali in Alaska. I remember her telling me how her two previous attempts on Mount Denali in the year 2017 and 2018 had been unsuccessful, but she sounded confident as if she knew she would be third time lucky, “I am scheduled to ski to North Pole in April this year and will then scale Mount Denali in Alaska in June.”
And thats what she did. Today afternoon a tweet that Aparna Kumar had successfully scaled Mount Denali went viral here in Uttarakhand.
Earlier this year, in January, 44 year old, Indian Police Services Aparna Kumar currently attached as DIG Training, Indo Tibetan Border Police, Seemadwar, Dehradun had hoisted the Tricolour on the South Pole. Aparna had trudged hauling a 40 kilo sledge skiing nine to ten hours a day on the illustrious footsteps of ‘Scotts of the Antartica.’
And five months down the line, she is atop Mount Denali. Aparna Kumar, a mother of two, is from the 2002 batch of IPS and is in the Uttar Pradesh cadre. The first IPS and ITBP officer to successfully scale the southern most tip of the earth, title goes to Aparna too. Karnataka-born and brought up, Aparna was bitten by the mountaineering bug, which saw her constantly on the move, where she has in the past six years, successfully scaled prominent peaks in seven continents.
In May 2016, Aparna summited Mount Everest from the north face. Almost a month post the 
mountaineering journey, Aparna Kumar message for the women of the world was: ‘One should keep trying and never quit. It is very important to pursue one’s passion with a single minded focus and devotion.“
Now having completed the seven summits, winning the coveted explorer’s Grand Slam is next on her agenda. Aparna Kumar has created history of being the first Indian woman to scale seven summits on seven continents and made it evident, that all dreams come true if we have the courage and the single minded focus to pursue them.
