KUALA LUMPUR, May 22 — RJ Nagarajan today proved that with sheer grit and resilience Malaysians are capable of achieving great challenges in the world when he became the second Malaysian to climb all seven highest peaks in seven continents of the world after successfully conquering his seventh peak at Mount Everest today.

According to ZEROTO8000 founder Mohd Khafiz Bachok, Nagarajan, 59 who is more affectionately known as RJ or Rajan managed to capture the summit of Mount Everest at 10.30am local time or 2.45pm Malaysia time today.

"Congratulations to another Malaysian, RJ Nagarajan, 59 years old, who successfully climbed the world’s highest peak Mount Everest at a height of 8,850 metres above sea level at exactly 10.30 this morning and became the second Malaysian to successfully climb all the seven highest peaks in the seven continents in Reinhold Messner’s version and the fourth climber in Malaysia known as the "World 7 Summits”.

The Seven Summits is one of the highest achievements in the world of mountain climbing” he said in a statement today.

According to Mohd Khafiz, previously Nagarajan had successfully climbed Mount Aconcagua in Argentina at a height of 6,961 metres (m) which is the highest peak in the South American continent, Mount Denali in the United States (6,194m) the highest peak in North America, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania (5,895m), the highest in Africa, Mount Elbrus in Russia (5,642m) is the highest peak on the European continent, Mount Vinson (4,892m) is the highest in Antarctica and Mount Kosciuszko in Australia (2,228m) is the highest on the Australian continent.

And the latest is Mount Everest in Nepal at a height of 8,848 m which is the highest peak in the Asian continent and the world this morning, he said.

He added that Nagarajan had also completed two more mountains, namely Mount Mont Blanc, in France at a height of 4,810 m and Puncak Jaya in Irian Jaya (4,884 m), each of which has a different version for Europe and Australia. It took him seven years since 2016 to complete all the climbs.

Mohd Khafiz said previously Datuk Muhamad Muqharabbin Mokhtarrudin or Qobin became the first Malaysian to complete the Reinhold Messner (Carsten Pyramid) version of the Seven Summits (Climbing the seven highest peaks in the seven continents) and two other climbers namely Ahmad Reduan Rozali and Fakri Abdul Samah had successfully climbed the seven peaks on the seven continents in the version of Richard Bass (Kosciousko).

According to Nagarajan who is also a climber from the ZEROTO8000 team, his climb is to convey the message of Malaysia’s spirit of self-reliance in pursuing dreams and creating success.

Every Malaysian should strive to be independent in creating success in various fields, he said.

He himself did all the climbing by working hard to collect his own funds and now it is proven that he has succeeded and this spirit is being instilled in the minds of Malaysians by ZEROTO8000, not only in climbing, but in whatever dreams they have. — Bernama