The mountaintop introduced a new world in front of her, one where life meant openness, freedom, and tonnes of fun.
“It was very beautiful; adipoli,” Iya Krish says in all her eight-year-old awareness. The mountaintop she talks about is the highest in North Africa, the 4,167-metre-high Mount Toubkal in Morocco.
The Thrissur native is now settled in Fujairah, UAE, with her parents. It was on July 7 that she embarked on the Toubkal trek, after several failed attempts to scale the peak during winter, when ice made its slanting paths treacherous.
“We dropped the attempt then but resolved to try again, in summer. That is how we submitted this time,” she recalls.
Iya is now billed as the youngest from Asia to summit the peak. Her love for the mountains began at five. That was when she hiked Sabarimala with her father, Krishna Raj.
“I saw that she was agile, ebullient, and didn’t make any fuss. She was scampering around, like some fluff, melting into the thin air around. That is when I felt maybe I should take her with me when I go up the mountains,” says Krishna.
Soon, she started accompanying her father on short trips in and around the UAE. “She also trains on weekends, climbing the peaks in Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, and practising Kalaripayattu. She holds another record as the youngest to summit Jebel Jais, 1,934 metres above sea level. She scaled the peak when she was just five years and 11 months old.
Remembering her trek up Toubkal, Krishna says Iya never displayed exhaustion or fear during the climb through the rugged peak, which is quite tiring even for the experienced due to strong winds blowing into the face.
“I asked her if she wanted to give up and come another day; she said a strict no,” he recalls, remembering the support of Nasser of Greenways Adventures Travel Tourism, who guided the trek.
Iya’s next aim is to scale Mount Elbrus, the highest in Russia and Europe, a stratovolcano that stretches 5.642 metres above sea level and the 10th most prominent peak in the world. Then, she wants to conquer the daunting Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, standing at 5,895 metres in northern Tanzania.
“My final dream is to summit Everest before I turn 12, and break the existing record of Jordan Romero, who summited the peak when he was just 13,” smiles the young adventurer.
Iya met Chief Minister VD Satheesan on Wednesday, who congratulated her for her feat.
Now, she has to rush back to her school in Fujairah to tell her friends and teachers about how exciting it was to hike up the Toubkal and her plans to scale the Kilimanjaro and Elbrus.
Other than her mountain dreams, Iya hopes to be a pilot when she grows up. “I love travel and adventure. So, I feel pilot suits me the best,” she says.
There is something about the heights, the echoes she hears when she reaches the peak.
“It makes me feel at home; there is adventure in the air and the feeling that I am on top of the world,” she smiles, adding that she will build her resolve as high as all of those towering peaks and follow every rainbow that shows up on her horizon.