This student summited Mt Kilimanjaro in record time
Narender Singh, 23, a DelhiNCR student, summited Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania (the highest mountain in Africa, about 4,900 metres or 16,100ft) and it’s no mean feat to summit the peak in record-setting time! He is over the moon, or should we say a mountain, courtesy his monumental feat for the fastest ascend in 17 hours beating the original record of 34 hours, and the fastest descend in 9 hours 7 minutes beating an original of 20 hours.
“I began my journey on July 21 at 12.20am Tanzanian time and reached the top on July 23 at 6.40am, reaching back on July 24 at Marangu Gate at 2.20pm. I’ve summited this peak in 2017 on the occasion of the Independence Day, and wanted to summit it the fastest. Main itna difference lana chahta tha ki kuch unique ho jaaye,” says Singh, who in the past has summited Mt Everest (in 2016), Mt Elbrus (in 2017), and wants to do all seven summits of the world.
Singh’s journey wasn’t easy though. “It has been full of challenges as my target was to complete it the fastest time. It was raining and slippery the whole time. My leg also got twisted and had swelled up the whole time. In games, when a participant loses, he comes back home, but in our field haar ka matlab nishtit death hain. You have to think twice even before choosing to rest,” shares Singh.
He says that his inspiration has been his cousin sister and Padma Shri awardee Santosh Yadav — who was the first woman to climb the 29,035 feet high Mount Everest twice, in 1992 and 1993, and the first woman to climb it from its Kangshung Face (the easternfacing side of Mount Everest).
“I was introduced to mountaineering at the age of five. She’s not just my sister but my guru, too. She taught me mountaineering at the age
My target was to complete [climb] it in the fastest time. It was raining and slippery. My leg also got twisted and had swelled up. NARENDER SINGH STUDENT
of eight, and it’s been a stupendous 12 year journey since then. Now, I see the weather and make accurate judgements on how to survive avalanches. My father, too, has been a part of Special Force Commando and he has spent three years in Siachen,” says Singh, who has done a mountaineering course from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi.