A five-year-old Indian boy, Harshit Saumitra, has become the youngest person to reach the Everest Base Camp (EBC). A class 1 student from New Delhi, Harshit took 10 days to cover the distance of 62km trek, many sections of which were covered by 5-7 inch of snow from the snowstorm caused by the tail-end of cyclone Hudhud.
“I felt very good. I unfurled the tricolor at the Everest Base Camp,” said Harshit after his return from the trek.
He also climbed the Kalapathar (5550 m) peak, located near the EBC. With this, the child overtakes the record set by Aaryan Balaji, a seven-year old Indian boy who had reached the two peaks in May 2012.
“We were worried that Harshit might experience altitude sickness. But he didn’t face any problem,” said his father, Rajeev Saumitra, a mountaineer who had reached the peak of Mount Everest (8848 m) last year.
The family plans to register the feat in record books like the Guinness World Records and the Limca Book of World Records.
Harshit who climbed Rohtang Pass (3930 m) before attempting EBC, has his eyes set on climbing Mount Kilimanjaro (5895 m) in Africa and also plans to attempt Mount Everest (8848 m) in a few years