The two Indian siblings who successfully reached the base camp of the world's highest peak Mount Everest, becoming the youngest climbers to reach the destination, today said the experience was "very exciting".
Five-year-old Kandarp Sharma and 8-year-old Ritwika successfully reached the base camp situated at an altitude of 5,380 metres in northeast Nepal on Monday.
"It was very exciting experience for me to reach the base camp," Ritwika told reporters here.
"We saw snow falling from the mountain there and also saw the Everest which was very close from us."
The siblings reached the base camp of the 8,848-metre peak accompanied by their parents.
After reaching Kalapatthar, the children had chanted 'Bharat Maata Ki Jay' and hoisted the tri-colour.
First-grader Kandarp and fourth-grader Ritvika are students of Little Angels High School in Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. Both of them are national adventure sports players and are the world's youngest siblings to scale such height.
"It was a challenge for us and we have accepted it, without hesitation," said Bhupendra Sharma, father of the two.
Sharma, an adventure coach with 20 years of experience as international mountaineer, said: "Along with breaking the world record in mountaineering, the siblings also excelled in other sports including horse riding, swimming, parasailing, river crossing, jumaring, parallel rope traverse, flying fox, rock climbing and rippling where they have won many awards."
Sharad Pradhan, media consultant of the Nepal Tourism Board, said the two Indian children have not only shown their love for mountains, but have also helped in promoting tourism in Nepal at a time when the country suffers in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in April.
The Kalapatthar peak is higher than the highest peaks in the US, Europe and Antarctica.
By reaching the base camp, Kandarp broke the record previously held by Harshit who had reached the base camp in 2014 at the age of 5 years and 11 months.
The successful expedition has send a message to world climbers that the Everest trekking circuit was not damaged by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that devastated other parts of the country and claimed nearly 9,000 lives.
Felicitations and greetings have poured in for the children from many countries.
Despite the difficulty, the two kids showed courage as big as the mountains themselves and by climbing the mountain in this challenging time for Nepal they helped in promoting tourism.
