Meet This 13-year-old Who Is Attempting to Climb Antarctica's Tallest Mountain 'Mount Vinson'

Defying his young age, Aaryan Balaji has made many headlines for being the youngest ever to trek upto Everest Base Camp. This child is just 13 years old and has been awarded the National Child Award in 2014 and is currently hoping to climb Antartica's tallest Mountain in November or December. Just at a tender age, he has achieved feats that are unprecedented in the world of adventure and is an epitome for promoting mountaineering and adventure sports. Aaryan holds the world record as the youngest ever to trek up to Everest Base Camp and climbed Mt Kalapattar when he was just 6 years old. Along with this, he is also the first and the only Indian Unicyclist to have represented our country in the World Unicycling Championships at Montreal, Canada in 2014. 

In an exclusive interview to Republic World, Aaryan Balaji talks about his interests, challenges and short-term goals.

Talking to us, the 13-year-old states that he started mountaineering at such a young age because of his father, Commander Balaji who is an avid adventurer himself and has been on many successful expeditions in the last decade, he wanted his son too to experience the same, and took him to the base camp of Mount Everest, from where his journey started. 

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Aaryan who has been mountaineering is thankful to his parents and discloses that his father is his constant inspiration, as he encourages him, and always supports him. The father and son duo also have a motto for mountaineering which is 'Dream. Practice. Do. Repeat'. The young mountaineer is very goal oriented and has made the country proud by unfurling the tricolour at the frontier of adventure activity that challenges the human spirit of courage and survival.

Being quick-witted and intelligent, Aaryan balances both his passion and school. Talking further, he states that he lives abroad for nearly 6 months, and is in school for the rest of the other months, and every time he goes for an expedition, he carries his textbooks, which he then reads so that he can keep up to date with the subjects that have been taught in school. 

When asked about how he manages to give exams, he reveals that his school is kind enough to give him one exemption a year, so that he can go forward with his passion. The young mountaineer reveals that he is extremely happy that his friends support him a lot, and are very proud because of his extraordinary achievements. Commenting about whether he wants to take up mountaineering as a profession, he refused and stated that high amounts of funds are required in order to pursue a career in this field. However, he does want to write the civil service exams and pursue to be an IFS officer and make his country proud. 

Considering, the fact that the teenager has climbed a few of the tallest mountains in the world, he has faced quite a few challenges. Commenting on that, he reveals that right before the expeditions he takes a series of precautions so that he does not fall ill.

'We face Hailstorms and hypothermia, which can really be hazardous and so the main precautions to take in order to avoid these include, proper clothing, hygiene, no junk food and drink plenty of water' says the young mountaineer. 

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For now,  Aaryan wants to complete climbing all the seven summits including the 'Adventure Grand Slam' where he wants to climb at reach both the North Pole and the South Pole. The teenager is extremely driven and is one of the youngest people in the country to have made India and the citizens of the country so happy and proud of his achievements.