They went, they saw, they conquered

The amazing story of how students of Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential Education Institutions Society scaled Mt Rhenock to show the world their spirit of triumph

It was a triumph over adversity and conquering of heights by 20 students of Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential Education Institutions Society (APSWREIS).

Quite remarkably, this comes in the very year that the State Government has dedicated it as the year of adventure.

Showing remarkable courage amid chilly weather conditions, the 20 conquered the 17,000 ft Mt Rhenock in Sikkim, which embodied their grit and determination to accomplish braving all odds. The expedition which began on October 28 took them 20 days to complete successfully.

The motivations for the ‘climbers’ were APSWREIS Principal Raymond Peter and Principal Secretary RS Praveen Kumar.

The students who made it to the expedition were selected from 120 students drawn from 296 residential schools across the State.

Recalling the experience an elated 14-year-old Mohan Prasad, Class IX student, said “At the beginning, I was little scared of the heavy snow. But I had the gut feeling that I would scale the mountain.’

According to Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI), the age limit to scale mountain is 17 years. “As their students were below the age limit, we provided three days of exclusive training. Even the girls were marvelous,’ stated the course director.

“When we reached the base camp, I was looked down by army personnel and everyone out there. They said that yeh bandha kya chadega is pahad ko (how can this kid scale the mountain).

I proved everyone wrong. To my surprise, even some army personnel couldn’t climb it. While I was climbing I saw some returning to the base camp,” said Mohan Prasad.

For Mohan, scaling the peak was the only criteria while for Roja it was a dream come true.

‘Initially I faced problems while climbing, but my group leader Surekha and Parmeshwar, instructor, kept our spirits high. As we reached 17,000ft, I realised how difficult it was to trek at -30’C temperature,” said Roja, who being from Andhra Pradesh had never experienced snowy conditions.

‘I was selected for the adventurous expedition from among many contenders despite initial criticisms that we would not be able to scale,’ pointed out Surekha, the team leader.

Mohan Prasad who weighs 30 kg could carry 20 kg baggage along with him all through the way. On how he managed to pull it off, he said, “I was confident and that made to scale the mountain despite the load.”

“I often used to watch movies about snow, glaciers and mountains. It was dream come true for me to see all those locations. After scaling it, now we think that we can achieve anything. In coming days, we plan to conquer Mount Everest said Rupa.

Twenty students were trained rigorously at Bhongiri for five days. The students were put on rock climbing training at the town. After five days of training, the students could scale the Bhongiri Mountain within 15 minutes which was exceptional.

“Apart from it, co-ordination among them is too high,” said Shekar Babu, noted trainer.