Drawing inspiration from Milkha Singh, Panchkula mountaineer makes it to Everest Base Camp

Emulating Milkha’s commitment to fitness, Panchkula-based Kumar was always fascinated with mountains and wanted to climb them in his lifetime

As a kid, Sandeep Kumar grew up reading about the achievements of India’s track-and-field legend Milkha Singh.

Sandeep Kumar at the Everest Base Camp. (HT PHOTO)

Emulating Milkha’s commitment to fitness, Panchkula-based Kumar was always fascinated with mountains and wanted to climb them in his lifetime. He recently achieved a milestone when he completed the Everest Base Camp expedition at a height of 5,364 metres and 17,598 feet in Nepal in 10 days amid difficult conditions.

“Everest Base Camp expedition is a dry run for Mount Everest. So I decided to go for it. The last two days were very challenging due to extreme weather. The oxygen level was very low at -10 degree temperature. The wind speed was averagely 40-60 km/hour. Due to the high altitude, I faced two sleepless nights and headache,” said the 39-year-old, who did mountaineering at Triund in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, in October 2020.

“I really enjoyed my stint in Triund and wanted to do something more challenging,” added Kumar, who works as a sales manager in an IT company.

The journey for the expedition started from Kathmandu to Lukla by a small aircraft. Lukla is at a height of 2,850 metre and the average temperature there is around -2 to -5 degrees.