The call of the wild
Aryan Balaji, the seven-year-old son of an intrepid adventure lover and Indian Navy officer, who became the youngest to trek to the Everest base camp in Nepal, beating an eight-year-old American’s record, represents the spirit of an age in which those coming forward to attempt the improbable are getting younger and younger.
It’s also encouraging that older people aren’t deterred by age while seeking adventure. A 76-year-old Nepali, Min Bahadur Sherchan, set the record in 2008 for being the oldest man to reach the summit of the world’s highest peak (8,850 metres), while Japan’s Tamae Watanabe beat her own record of being the oldest woman on Everest by scaling it again last week at the age of 73, although she did so from the somewhat easier northern face that is accessed from the Tibetan side.
Scaling Everest is still one of the most arduous tasks on earth even if the number of successful climbers (about 3,000) has grown hugely since 1953 when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first to reach the roof of the world, after Britain’s George Mallory had got tantalisingly close in 1921,
Climate change has made things tougher, while regular hazards like altitude sickness remain. A new challenge is overcrowding, with Nepal Tourism having issued 340 permits, at $10,000 each, for 2012 alone. Those of us who have our feet solidly on terra firma can only look up and wonder at what drives these people to wish to reach the top of the world.
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