ONGOLE: Akshaj Udaiwal, a Class 3 student, became the youngest person in the world to scale Mount Ararat in Turkey. The eight-year-old, a native of Ongole and currently residing in Muscat, Oman, was accompanied by his mother, V Anuradha, in climbing 4,200 m to reach second base camp of the peak.
His grandfather Velagapudi Venkata Ramana, a retired AP Transco superintending engineer, explained that Akshaj’s great will power enabled him to scale the mountain even as the temperature dropped to below -5 °C amid strong winds.