India, Jan. 6 -- At 18, Kaamya Karthikeyan has become the youngest Indian and second-youngest woman in the world to ski to the South Pole. She braved temperatures dipping to -30degC and gale-force winds to cover nearly 60 nautical miles (roughly115 km) on foot from 89deg South, pulling a sled carrying her entire expedition load, and reached the South Pole on December 27. "Over the last 10 years of climbing, this is probably the most difficult expedition of my life so far," she tells us. On the third day, an injury nearly forced her to abandon the expedition: "There was talk of having a pickup sent to take me back due to cold burns. The fear of being sent back really played with my mind. Given one day to prove that it would not worsen, I pushed myself to walk for five gruelling hours on the ice. Having made it feels special." Her prep began in 2021 in Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir. "We trained to pull sleds weighing 40kg to 50kg for eight hours at a stretch." In the final few weeks, she trained in Delhi. "I was training by pulling tractor tyres tied to a harness around my waist to simulate pulling a sled on ice," she says. Back from the expedition, Kaamya admits that readjusting to civilisation hasn't been easy either. "Reaching the ALE camp at the South Pole (a semi-temporary structure) brought unexpected joy for me in simple comforts like chairs, tables and heaters. After eight days of endless white, seeing grass again in Punta Arenas, Chile, felt nothing short of a miracle."...