Nine-year-old Tiana Budhia from Ranchi, Jharkhand became the youngest girl from Jharkhand and one of the youngest in India to reach the base camp of the world's highest peak Mount Everest.
Tiana reached the base camp of Mt Everest which is at an altitude of 5364 m (17598 feet) on 5th October 2023. She completed the entire trek of over 130 km in 11 days along with her father Anirudh Budhia and his friends namely Mayank Arya, Aditya Budhia, Dr Kushagra Mahansaria, Abhishek Taneja, Hitesh Bhagat and Kanishka Poddar. Tiana was proudly holding the Indian Flag at the Everest Base Camp.
Tiana and her team started their trek to Everest Base Camp on 29th September 2023 from Lukla (2860 m) and trekked all the way to Everest Base Camp via Phakding (2652 m), Namche Bazaar (3440 m), Tengboche (3870 m), Dingboche (4400 m), Labuche (4900 m) and Gorak Shep (5170 m). The trek from Gorak Shep to Everest Base camp was entirely on Kumbhu Glacier. The entire team returned to Lukla on 8thOctober 2023 and concluded the trek.
During the trek, they witnessed 4 of the 6 highest mountain peaks in the world namely Cho Oyu (8,201 m), Mt. Makalu (8,470 m), Mt. Lhotse (8,516 m), and Mt. Everest (8,848 m). The other notable mountains which were visible up close were Pumori (7161 m) and Ama Dablam (6812 m).
The trek is a difficult level trek wherein you move above the tree line on the 4th day itself and the average elevation stays above 4000 mt. There are several stages on each day with long steep climbs for hours, the average oxygen level dips to 70-75 per cent and even regular work like wearing clothes and shoes becomes a difficult and daunting task which makes you breathless. However, Tiana was determined to complete the trek and managed all the difficulties in breathing, headache and acute mountain sickness well.
Anirudh and his friends from Ranchi have been going on annual trekking trips to mountains in India and Nepal for the last few years and they have successfully completed notable treks like the Hampta Pass trek (4270 m) in Himachal, India and Annapurna Base Camp (4130 m) trek in Nepal. Ever since they completed the ABC trek in Nepal last year, Tiana has been after her father to join the Everest Base Camp Trek in 2023. Tiana got excited with trekking looking at the photos from his father's treks and listening to stories from the mountains. She was mentally prepared to do this trek for almost a year.
Tiana trained for the trek by going to the Gym regularly and focused on increasing her leg strength and cardio activities. She even used to climb stairs in her apartment every day to get used to climbing in the mountains.
The trek was highly education in nature where you stay along with the Sherpa community for 11 days in their tea house, learning about their culture, hard work and lifestyle, exploring the Tenzing Norgay Stupa and museum, a tribute to the great mountaineer, who was the first to scale Mt. Everest along with fellow mountaineer Edmund Hillary. Tiana now plans to go on all future treks along with her father and his friends.
