Ishita Mishra

For the boys of his age, life is all about video games, food and studies but his passion stand him extraordinary from the lot. Meet 11-year-old Vaassangyaan Chaudhary from Baraut in Baghpat district who has recently made his parents proud by becoming the world's youngest to scale the 20163 feet high mountain--Stok Kangri--in Leh Ladakh.

All those who have started praising the boy and his upbringing, take a break as the list of child achievers in his family has just started. Vaassangyaan’s younger sister, 10-year-old Manassangyini Chaudhary has already trekked to the Kanchenjunga base camp at 16,300-ft and is the brand ambassador of Uttar Pradesh radish Government’s campaign to save west UP's heavily polluted Hindon river under their Hindon River Rejuvenation Project. Youngest among the three siblings, six-year-old Suryasangini has made history by hoisting the tri-colour at 16,300-foot-high Kangchenjunga base camp in March this year.

Being nurtured by an environment loving parent, Sandeep Chaudhary )father and Manisha Chaudhary (mother) who are management consultants by profession, these kids had been to many such adventurous treks with family in the past . The parents feel that education system has become too much theoretical these days and hence its not benefiting children much.

“Children will not learn the lessons of life unless they get the chance to go out and explore on their own. The aim to take little children to tough trekking trips is to teach them about the environment and inculcate the love for nature in them,” said Sandeep Chaudhary.

The siblings are used to brave extreme weather conditions, low oxygen level and obviously the dangers of mountains. For them, minus 18 degrees is fun and they never quit any assignment in-between. In the last five years, the family has taken up many expeditions, including 14,000-foot-high Himani Chamunda in Dharmshala. Suryassangyini, when she was only two-and-a-half-year-old in 2011, had trekked the 12,500-foot Pindari glacier.

The three travel 25 kilometers everyday to their school, Delhi Public school Sonipat (Haryana) from Baghpat in UP. Part from trekking and studying, they also play with the threestray dogs they have tamed from past few months.

Young Vaassangyaan who is sleeping for 12 hours a day thesedays because of his tiring journey to mountains was happy with the achievement.

“It was tough to breath in less oxygen and fighting knee deep snow at minus 18 degrees. Last 500 meters of 75 degree steep gradient were the toughest as I have to use Ice-axe and Crampons to climb. I managed to reach at the peek at 9.45 am on 6th June,” said Vaassangyaan.

The mission to scale this highest peek of the Zanskar Himalayas was not easy as the boy failed in his first attempt on the morning of 4th June due to extremely low levels of oxygen on the glacier causing him breathlessness. To make matters worse, he realized the 5 kgs heavy two-piece snow boots were causing him pain as he had been walking in deep snow, wearing them for 10 hours, all the way from the base camp. He retreated to the base camp, with his Sherpa, Padam Limboo, to recover and restrategize.

“My mentors and guides at the camp decided to re-attempt on the morning of 6th June. This time, I chose to wear simple trekking shoes till the glacier and change into heavy snow boots and Crampons only during the final ascent. This time the strategy worked,” he added.

On his return to Leh on 8th June, Vaassangyaan was felicitated and certified as the world's youngest to scale this summit, by- Indian Mountaineering Foundation Director, Sonam Wangyal, a Padma Shree and the first in the world to scale this summit in 1963.

Vaassangyaan was also felicitated and certified by the Stok village Panchayat as well as the All Laddakh Tour Operators Association for his world record making feat.

"From a very early stage, my father explained to me the important role nature plays in our lives. We have spent a lot of time in natural surroundings," said Manassangin, the Hindon project’s brand ambassador.

While sharing her experience in the trekking camps, she said, "I have seen with my own eyes how glaciers are formed drop by drop, and how life saving water is carried down the mountains to reach the plains. And, here we are destroying the priceless environmental resource. It needs to change and it needs to change fast or we will smother the very resource that sustains life on this planet." Adding that “I am a daughter of Mother Nature and want to save my mother from human activities.”

The Hindon project is a joint initiative of Tarun Bharat Sangh (an NGO involved in community mobilisation for environment conservation), Water Resources Group (experts in low-cost water treatment technologies) and UP Government. The NGO is being run by Rajendra Singh, a Magsaysay awardee who is known as 'Water Man of India'.

As per the certificate issued by the gram panchayat of 07-Yuksam Dubdi village in west Sikkim, from where trekkers to the peak have to seek permission, Surya Sangini is the youngest person to have trekked this high. She was

Speaking to Indian Express, little Suryassangyini said that she is in love with mountains. While the kid felt shy sharing her experience on the mountain peak, her siblings backup her to reply properly. In her childish voice and accent, she was able to pronounce that she learnt about ‘bio-diversity’ and ‘bio-singularity’, the terms which are not at all a part of syllabus of class two in which she is presently studying.