Chandigarh: A seven-year-old girl Saanvi Sood is the world's youngest to have successfully scaled Mount Elbrus. Located in western part of the Causasus, Mount Elbrus is the highest peak of Russia at a height of 5642 meters.
Also, Saanvi was the youngest in India to wave the Indian Tricolour at the base camp of Mount Everest at 5,364 metres. She had also successfully scaled the African continent's highest peak Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895m)and Mount Kosciuszko, the tallest peak (2,228m) in Australia.
Student of Yadvindra Public School in Mohali, Saanvi is a resident of Ropar in Chandrgarh. She left for Russia on July 23 with her father Deepak Sood and reached the country the next day.
Saanvi said it was challenging to climb Mount Elbrus where the temperature dropped as low as -25 degree Celsius. She had to postpone her journey from July 29 to 30 due to stormy weather and heavy snowfall. Climbing the snow-capped mountain was a completely different experience for her, she said.
According to Saanvi's father, she was inspired to climb the Everest base camp after watching the movie 'Everest'. She covered about 65 km in nine days, passing through high and cold terrains. However, since Saanvi is only seven years old, she has not been allowed to go beyond the base camp.
Delighted with this achievement, TPS Virich, Director and Principal of Yadvinder Public School, Mohali, said, “Saanvi is a very bright student and is very passionate about mountaineering, cycling and skating.
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A few days ago, a 10-year-old skater Rhythm Mamania from Mumbai also became one of the young Indian mountaineers to scale the base camp of Mount Everest. Rhythm completed the trek in 11 days. Ridham's parents Harshal and Urmi were present with him during the trek. Ridham loved climbing mountains since the age of five and did his first trek on the 21-km Dudhsagar, his mother said.