5-year-old Tegbir Singh reached the pin­na­cle of glory through grit, dis­ci­pline, and sheer hard work when he be­came the first youngest Sikh to scale the Mount Ever­est Base Camp this week, dream­ing of con­quer­ing Mount Ever­est and other peaks around the world, un­der the care and guid­ance of his po­lite, hum­ble and dis­ci­plined fa­ther Sukhin­derdeep Singh. WSN spe­cial cor­re­spon­dent Ish­winder Singh Dakha catches up with the fa­ther-son duo on the phone while they are re­turn­ing home to Pun­jab.

HOIST­ING THE KE­SARI NIS­HAN SAHIB AT THE MOUNT EVER­EST BASE CAMP this week, the gi­ant young Sar­darji Tegbir Singh, not only marked his achieve­ment but also planted a sym­bol of his faith and re­silience in one of the world’s most chal­leng­ing ter­rains. Tegbir Singh, a mere 5-year-old from Ropar, Pun­jab, has etched his name in the an­nals of ex­cep­tional youth­ful climbers by reach­ing the Ever­est Base Camp with his fa­ther.

Speak­ing to WSN, Sukhin­derdeep Singh said, “In our year-long prepa­ra­tion un­der coach Bikramjit Singh, a for­mer in­ter­na­tional hand­ball coach, we fo­cused not just on phys­i­cal train­ing but also on metic­u­lous nu­tri­tional man­age­ment. He crafted a reg­i­men that was both stren­u­ous and sus­tain­ing, prepar­ing us phys­i­cally and men­tally for the high al­ti­tudes of Ever­est Base Camp.”

When this re­porter asked Tegbir Singh, he po­litely replied, “I was re­ally in­spired by a friend’s daugh­ter who reached Ever­est Base Camp when she was just seven and a half. Know­ing her story made me be­lieve I could do it too.”

“The fi­nal two days were the tough­est part of our trek, but Dad and I kept push­ing for­ward. We got a lot of of­fers from mule op­er­a­tors to help us be­cause I was young, but we wanted to com­plete our jour­ney on foot. When­ever I felt tired, I would chant prayers. Dad of­ten told me the story of Bhai Ba­chit­tar Singh, which re­ally lifted my spir­its and kept me go­ing.”

“The fi­nal two days were the tough­est part of our trek, but Dad and I kept push­ing for­ward. We got a lot of of­fers from mule op­er­a­tors to help us be­cause I was young, but we wanted to com­plete our jour­ney on foot. When­ever I felt tired, I would chant prayers. Dad of­ten told me the story of Bhai Ba­chit­tar Singh, which re­ally lifted my spir­its and kept me go­ing.”

Tegbir Singh, young moun­taineer

In a world where ex­tra­or­di­nary feats are of­ten cel­e­brated, it is the sto­ries of young achiev­ers that truly in­spire awe and ad­mi­ra­tion. This re­mark­able jour­ney is not only a tes­ta­ment to his phys­i­cal and men­tal for­ti­tude but also a bea­con of the Sikh spirit of re­silience and de­ter­mi­na­tion.

At an al­ti­tude where the air is thin and the land­scape daunt­ing, young Tegbir Singh and his fa­ther, Sukhin­derdeep Singh, achieved the in­cred­i­ble by reach­ing the Ever­est Base Camp, a jour­ney that many only dream of. Tegbir’s achieve­ment is par­tic­u­larly sig­nif­i­cant in the Sikh com­mu­nity, re­flect­ing the core teach­ings of courage, per­se­ver­ance, and faith that are deeply em­bed­ded in Sikh phi­los­o­phy. As taught by the Sikh Gu­rus, over­com­ing ob­sta­cles through sheer will and faith is a virtue up­held by all ad­her­ents. This young Sikh’s jour­ney em­bod­ies these teach­ings, demon­strat­ing that spir­i­tual and phys­i­cal en­durance can lead to tran­scen­dent achieve­ments.

The en­deavor also sym­bol­izes a for­ma­tive life ex­pe­ri­ence, shaped by rig­or­ous phys­i­cal prepa­ra­tion and men­tal con­di­tion­ing. The fa­ther-son duo trained ex­ten­sively, their reg­i­men con­sist­ing of daily ex­er­cises, al­ti­tude sick­ness prepa­ra­tion, and nu­tri­tional plan­ning to en­sure their bod­ies could with­stand the harsh con­di­tions of high al­ti­tude trekking.

This prepa­ra­tion is cru­cial, as noted by sim­i­lar ac­counts of young achiev­ers such as Jor­dan Romero, who, at 13, be­came the youngest to sum­mit Mount Ever­est, af­ter rig­or­ous train­ing and mul­ti­ple climbs across the world’s high­est peaks. Tegbir Singh, about trained by his fa­ther Sukhin­derdeep Singh not only adds to the rich ta­pes­try of Sikh achieve­ments but also joins the chron­i­cles of young ad­ven­tur­ers glob­ally who con­tinue to push the bound­aries of what is pos­si­ble.

More­over, the tale of Tegbir Singh res­onates with re­cent sto­ries of youth­ful climbers like Zara Šifra, the youngest at four years to reach the base camp, show­cas­ing that age is merely a num­ber when it comes to set­ting and de­mol­ish­ing records.

Such feats high­light not only the phys­i­cal ca­pa­bil­i­ties of the young climbers but also their im­mense men­tal strength and re­silience.

The story of Tegbir is not just about reach­ing a high point on Earth but also about el­e­vat­ing the hu­man spirit. It is about set­ting an ex­am­ple for the youth, prov­ing that with de­ter­mi­na­tion and prepa­ra­tion, no peak is too high. His jour­ney brings to light the Sikh prin­ci­ple of “Chardi Kala,” the pur­suit of main­tain­ing a pos­i­tive spirit and op­ti­mism in the face of ad­ver­sity.

The sig­nif­i­cance of Tegbir Singh’s achieve­ment ex­tends be­yond the Sikh com­mu­nity, of­fer­ing in­spi­ra­tion to all, es­pe­cially the younger gen­er­a­tion, to dream big and strive un­yield­ingly to­wards those dreams. As young Tegbir has shown, with the sup­port of fam­ily and the strength drawn from one’s cul­tural and spir­i­tual roots, the sky is not the limit—rather, it is just the be­gin­ning.

WSN cel­e­brates this ex­tra­or­di­nary feat and looks for­ward to see­ing what peaks Tegbir Singh will con­quer next in his hope­fully long and il­lus­tri­ous fu­ture of moun­taineer­ing.