Nine-year-old Surat girl becomes the youngest to climb Europe’s highest peak
SURAT: "Yes you have done...you are a very strong girl," exclaimed Dr Sarika Mehta in a choked voice as she hugged her nine-year-old daughter Dhanshree who couldn't believe that they had actually scaled Mount Elbrus, Europe's highest peak at an altitude of 18,510 feet. There were tears of joy as Sarika, Dhanshree, her 13-year-old brother Janam and their father Jignesh, togther scaled the peak. Dhanshree, a class IV student, made the Diamond City proud by becoming the youngest girl to climb Mount Elbrusin Russia on June 18. The climb that began on June 13 was the biggest test of the family's, especially the little one's, mental and physical grit. "At one time, we even decided to return after encountering a very violent storm. We were extremely worried for the kids. However, they were determined. They said since we had already scaled 3\4th of the mountain, let's reach the peak," Dr Sarika, a doctor, mountaineer and a biker, told TOI over phone from Moscow. The last day was the most arduous as Dhanshree and family took 11 hours to reach the top, carrying 10-12 kg weight.
Dhanshree and Janam were cheered all along the way by other climbers from across the world who were awed by the kids' sheer grit. "We caught each other and stood at times not to get dragged away by winds and held on to the rope when the peak was just 10-12 metres away. It took us long time to climb just 10 m at one point of time due to high velocity winds," said Janam , who wants to be a mechanical engineer and climb all seven summits of the world.
Dhanshree said, "My mother has not climbed Mt Everest and I also want to go there. We will again go on a family climb and conquer Mt Everest one day."
