BENGALURU: Mehul Ramaswami, at 16 years of age, has trekked the Himalayas six times and recently conquered Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa.
The Bengaluru boy went on his first ever trek when he was three-years-old, riding on his father’s back, as the family of three trekked through the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. He does not remember when exactly his fondness for trekking developed.
“During the holidays, I always used to go to the Himalayas with my dad,” says Mehul, a student of Class XI with National Public School in Indiranagar. “I also like outdoorsy games such as football and cricket. I used to play piano but now I have stopped because the outdoor spirit has taken over.”
In the snowy morning of December 31, Mehul reached Stella Point, which is at 5,700 m altitude in Kilimanjaro, draped in layers of clothing and a ziplock bag tied around his feet to keep it dry.
The beginning of Kilimanjaro
“My father had gone to Kilimanjaro two years ago and I asked him last October if we could go there on Christmas,” adds Mehul. His father was a bit skeptical because the weather is not pleasant during the season, but he eventually relented. On December 23, Mehul was ready and waiting at the Mumbai Airport writing about his excitement and apprehension of the much-awaited adventure in his blog.
“The time was right for me to do it,” says Mehul.
Preparing for the climb
Prior to scaling Mount Kilimanjaro, Mehul and his trekking buddy, his father, had gone to trek Stock La, in Ladakh. The four-day-trek to Ladakh was a highly anticipated one because “there are high chances of catching a glimpse of the snow leopard. Unfortunately I couldn’t see one,” sighs Mehul. Mehul started preparing 12 weeks prior to leaving for Africa. He would run from basement to the terrace everyday almost 10-15 times in the seven-storey apartment he resides in. On Sundays, Mehul would go for a 10-km run with his friends in Cubbon Park. A week before leaving to conquer Kilimanjaro, Mehul went on a run to Nandi hills. His exercises to strengthen his legs were advised by his father. However, they do not train together because of Mehul’s school timings in the morning.
Challenges
Besides being the longest trek , it also was the most difficult and beautiful at the same time, for Mehul. The days after the first day (after December 25) the entire trek was in the rain, hail and snow. “It was a great challenge but more than this, battling out self-doubt was the greatest challenge of all,” says Mehul. During the climb, there was a part of him that wanted to stop.
The most difficult day out of his eight-day trek was the fourth day when he was at 3,900 m and had to walk 10 hours.
On reaching 4,300 metres, Mehul started feeling drowsy and had to stop the journey midway without reaching the destination, Lava Tower. On the fifth day, he started his journey feeling a lot more positive. “Everytime a negative thought came to my mind I would either count my steps till 100 or play name, place, animal, thing with myself ,” he says. “The names were always of the football players since I love football,” Mehul laughs.
On the last day of the trek, he and his father along with two guides were delayed and it was a “toughie” to walk in the dark in the snow, says Mehul. But at the last minutes, only few hundred metres away from the destination, Mehul’s father got an altitude sickness so he decided to go back but pushed Mehul to keep going. With a bit of inspiration and the game of name, place, animal, thing, he conquered Kilimanjaro.
What’s next
Mehul says that he prefers to keep his love for climbing, a hobby, and make his profession something related to computer science. His next target is Stok Kangri, a 6,153 m mountain in Ladakh. “It is said it is tougher than Kilimanjaro,” says Mehul.