A five year and 11 month old Indian boy claimed to have set a new world record by successfully climbing Kalapatthar peak, some 200 metre above the base camp of Mount Everest in Nepal.
Harshit Saumitra, the son a famous mountaineer from India, reached 5,554 m high Kalapatthar on October 17.Harshit's climbing team included his father Rajeev Saumitra and two Sherpa guides.
Harshit had embarked towards the Everest base camp on October 7, when he landed at Lukla Airport by a helicopter.It took the boy 10 days to reach the base camp, for which ordinary people take 7 days.
"I had taken special precaution for his safety and his health condition is perfectly sound," said his father.Harshit was moving towards the base camp located in North-East Nepal at a time when dozens of people, mostly foreigners, lost their lives in the Himalayas, due to snow blizzard in North-West Nepal.
"We took two days' rest at a tent on way to the base camp to protect from the blizzard," Rajeev said.He has not shown any symptoms of headache or high altitude sickness during the climbing, despite his young age, he added.
"Jay Hind, India is the great," Harshit said waving the Indian tri-colour after reaching Kalapatthar.The peak is higher than the highest peaks of three continents, Europe's Mount Blanc (4,810 m), Antartica's Vinson Massif (4,892 m) and Australia's Punack Jaya or Carstensz Pyramid (4,884 m).
Harshit has set a world record by breaking earlier records, claimed his father Rajeev at a press conference in Kathmandu.The boy had broken the record set by seven-year-old Aryan Balaji, another Indian boy, who had reached the Everest base camp and Kalapatthar in May 2012.
Harshit's father said that he will start the process of registering the name of Harshit for Limca Book of Records from tomorrow."We will provide all the evidences including his birth certificate and the video clippings of the climbing," he said.
"We are also considering to apply for Guinness World Records for our claim of setting a world record shortly," he added.
