Indian children youngest to reach Everest base camp

Kathmandu, Aug 11
Two children from the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have set a record for being the youngest climbers to reach Mount Everest base camp, a media report said on Tuesday.

Accompanied by their parents, Gwalior-based siblings Kandarp Sharma, 5, and Ritvika, 8, reached the base camp at an altitude of 5,380 metres on Monday morning, according to the expedition organiser and climbers.

“Along with their individual record of being the youngest boy and girl to trek to the base camp, they are the youngest brother and sister to successfully reach a height of 5,380 metres,” their father, Bhupendra Sharma told The Himalayan Times.

Kandarp (grade 1) and Ritvika (grade 4) are students of Gwalior's Little Angels High School.

According to Bhupendra, who is a lawyer by profession, they are also the first family to trek to the base camp and climb the Kalapathar peak (5,550 metres), which is higher than the highest peaks of three continents - Mont Blanc (4,810 m) in Europe, Vinson Massif (4,810 m) in Antarctica, and Puncak Jaya (4,884 m) in Australasia. The children flew to Lukla on August 2 to embark start the trek.

“The expedition was undertaken to send a message to the world climbers that Everest trekking route was not damaged by the earthquakes that devasted other parts of the country,” said Thukden Sherpa, general manager at Arun Treks and Expedition - organiser of the trek.

The parents said they would try to get the children's names in the Guinness Book of World Records and India's Limca Book of Records for becoming the youngest climbers to reach the base camp.

In October 2014, Harshit, a five-year-old student of GD Goenka School, New Delhi, had broken the record held by seven-year-old Aaryan Balaji, also an Indian, who reached Everest base camp in 2012.