Lakshya: Climbing the Everest!

Leave alone climbing Everest, normal trekking on leniently slopped hills need some kind of fitness, training, and the will to start and successfully complete it.

Knowing the hardships one has to go through, it will be surprising to know that a 10-year-old made it to the top without any formal training.

Dhruv Vijendra Katiyar, a resident of Navi Mumbai, and a class 6 student at Ryan International School at Nerul-Navi Mumbai achieved this feat which very few have against their name.

Dhruv climbed the Everest Base Camp in just six days. And that too, without acclimatization or any formal training! The Summit is a challenge that easily scares most grown-ups, it motivated this young, and courageous man. Dhruv is one of the youngest to reach a height of 5364 meters. He enjoyed the thrill of this challenging adventurous trek to the Everest base camp from Lukla, Nepal to the Khumbu Glacier region with the wide-ranging views of the snow-capped Himalayas as he climbed every day and captured the memories in photos and videos.

First phase

The first part of the trek, from Lukla to Namche Bazaar, passes over suspension bridges. It also had a great view of the peaks around Everest and its surroundings. The tree and plant line starts reducing in the second part of the trek and disappears as they climbed up to their destination. The temperature kept on dropping throughout their trek from Lukla to Everest Base Camp.

The Itinerary

Dhruv's Everest base camp trekking with a flight to Lukla from Kathmandu in the morning of 16th April 2022 with a Sherpa guide.

From Lukla, they covered around 9 Kms in a short 3-hour trek and reached Phakding on the same day. Post an overnight stay at Phakding, the next morning their journey started for Namche Bazaar which they reached in the evening.

After Namche Bazar, they reached Tengboche, Dingboche, and Lobuche the next day with an overnight stay at the places. They paid a visit to the Tengboche monastery. The Ama Dablam peak, a prominent landmark on the Everest summit, is also visible on the route from Tengboche to Dingboche. Early morning on 21st April 2022 they started from Lobuche to Gorakshep and then from there to the Everest Base Camp on the same day. They returned from Base camp to Gorakshep the same day and spent a night there with the temperature chilling between minus 13 to 15 degrees Celsius.

It was a great experience for Dhruv, he captured one of the most memorable videos of the trek with his father while sipping hot honey lemon water sitting alongside Mount Lhotse. The solo video on Everest Base Camp Summit remains his favorite captured throughout the trek.

The origination of the idea

Dhruv's father is fond of regular physical activities and has taken a few treks including Roopkund Trek in Uttarakhand. This helped Dhruv who is an active kid and prefers to remain engaged with some physical activities with kids in his age group preferring to take it easy with some indoor games. The first thought of the Everest trek came as they were planning a family trip and Dhruv's regular exercise of climbing staircases with his father. Traditionally, trips like these are sponsored by schools or some other organization, but this Everest trek was entirely paid for by the family.

What is most surprising to know is that Dhruv did not take any formal training, or help from professionals before taking this trek. Dhruv belongs to a family with neither a sport nor an adventure background, his father Vijendra Katiyar is Country Manager with an MNC in cyber security space, while his mother Savita runs her own start-up.

Dhruv's story is an example for many of us that one needs to have sheer grit and courage to achieve the impossible with basic to minimum facilities.