Jamia Student Faisal Latif Climbs 17,200-Feet High Shethidhar Mountain Peak

There is a famous saying: Achievers are those who dare to dream. This saying seems fit for mountaineer Faisal Latif, a 19-year-old graduate student in the Department of Tourism, Jamia Millia Islamia.

In the month of June this year, Faisal along with his friend Anirudh Sharma and six others in his team set out on a mountain climbing expedition to climb the Mount Shethidhar peak in Beas Kund Valley, near Manali in Himachal Pradesh, which is reportedly 17,200 feet (5358 meters) high.

Faisal along with Anirudh, reached the summit on 11th June, while the other six members were not able to make it to the summit and stayed behind waiting at the lower camps.

This was probably the first successful ascent on this mountain after the accident which took place last year in October, in which three people died of rockfall and whiteout.

Faisal is a trained mountaineer from A.B. Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering in Manali, and he has also attended the prestigious Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling.

Besides mountain climbing, Faisal is also a cyclist. He has completed a cycling expedition from Kashmir in the north to Kanyakumari in the south on his own.

On being asked about his experience of climbing Mount Shethidar, Faisal said:

We were very confident about it. We never talked about the risks which we were taking. We went up the mountain cracking jokes and laughing. And I remember when we reached the summit, the temperature was below -10 degrees Celsius. But the first thing I said to Anirudh was: Anirudh bhai this peak looks like the same as the peak shown in the movie ‘Ye Jawani Hai Deewani.’ And Anirudh shouted back, Bhoota Parbat! And we both started laughing like hell.

And when asked what’s next for them, they said: Of course like every mountaineer we too want to climb Mount Everest one day, but our dream peak is Kanchenjunga. We would like to do it together someday.

[Editor’s Note: If you have a similar encouraging or inspiring story to share about yourself or of somebody you know at Jamia, then write to us at: editor[@]jamiajournal.com]