First school team will attempt to climb Mt Everest

The team from the prestigious St Lawrence School, Sanawar, will attempt to scale the 29,035 feet peak, Colonel Neeraj Rana, under whose guidance the school children have undergone a gruelling five-month training, said here today.

The six -- Hakikat Singh Grewal, Guribadat Singh, Prithvi Singh, Ajay Sohal, Shubham and Fateh Singh -- are from Punjab, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh.

"The children have undergone extensive training in all formats of stamina build-up, fitness as well as adventure sports to equip them to cope with the hardships at Mt Everest.

"The students were trained on various aspects including mountaineering training at Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling, muscle build-up and strengthening exercises, weight training as well as 1,000 kms of cycling on various terrains in Thar desert. They will be further trained on cross training, endurance and a 10-day high altitude winter-training-cum-acclimatisation trek at Khardungla in Ladakh," he said.

Col Rana said that the two-month expedition will start from April 5 when the students leave from the capital to reach Kathmandu.

16-year-old Hakikat Singh seemed ready for the challenge and said, "I want to climb Everest for my love for the mountains and outdoors."

Prithvi Singh is also equally excited and takes inspiration from the words of Sir Edmund Hilary: "It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves".

For Fateh Singh, who hails from Muktsar, a small town in Punjab, the love for joining the Indian Army made him take up the challenge.