On 3rd November 2016, two young boys Master Advait Aditya Bhartiya (age 6yrs) & Master Veerpratap Raje Bhonsle (age 11yrs) made history, by being the youngest children from Maharashtra to reach The Everest Base Camp in Nepal with Pune based Adventure & trekking company Adventure Pulse. Accompanied by their respective mothers, Mrs. Payal Aditya Bhartia & Mrs. Damayanti Raje Bhonsle, the team set off from Kathmandu, Nepal on 26th October, journeying up the Khumbu Valley to finally arrive at the Everest Base Camp located alongside the dreaded Khumbu Icefall at 17,593 ft above sea level. They returned back to Pune on 6th November.
“The two boys showed tremendous tenacity and incredible maturity, way beyond their years, thus allowing them to deal with the various hardships of the journey”, beamed Expedition Leader & Co-Founder of Adventure Pulse, Samir Patham. “Their successful completion of the trek not only makes them the youngest in Maharashtra but also makes Advait Bhartiya the youngest child in India to reach the Everest Base camp in the winter season”, he adds.
Their 12 day grueling trek began from the small village of Lukla, located at the foot of the Everest Valley at 8900ft and slowly made their way along the Dudh Khosi River, through beautiful pine tree forests, climbing above the tree line and finally into the snow line, reaching their destination at an incredible height of 17,593ft above sea level. For an adult, this is usually an incredible feat, with not just the kilometers and the mountain trails to deal with but also the thin air, reduction in atmospheric oxygen and subzero temperatures dropping to about 8 to –12degrees C, at times. But for young adventurers of this age, this truly has been an amazing achievement.
Adventure Pulse, co-founded by Samir Patham and Sauraj Jhingan, in the past had led the largest contingent of school children from the Bishop’s school Pune to the Everest Base Camp in 2014. That’s not all – they were also credited with performing tremendous Rescue & Relief operations during the Nepal Earthquake and Avalanche, while trapped at the Everest Base Camp, as part of their Mt. Everest Climbing Expedition in 2015.
