Atlas Southall, 6, joins dad as he leads group to Everest Base Camp
Not everyone can say they’ve stood at Everest Base Camp at 5,364 metres, but six-year-old Atlas Southall can.
“It’s a massive moment the moment you arrive at Everest Base Camp,” Ben Southall, Atlas’s father, said.
“The emotional unload of having trekked in very tough conditions, very cold conditions, [and] in a lot of snow.”
One month before Mr Southall was due to lead a group on the 12-day trek to Base Camp his wife was called overseas for work, setting Atlas up for the adventure of his life.
“At the 11th hour, with about five weeks to go, I suddenly booked flights for Atlas and said, ‘Look, are you up for this?’,” he said.
Luckily, Atlas takes after his dad and loves adventure.
“He always wants to come on adventures. He always says, ‘Why didn’t you take me?’,” Mr Southall said.
“I said, this one’s a bit of a challenging one. It’s a lot of walking. It’s a cultural adventure as well as just climbing up, and up, and up.”
That’s a lot of climbing for little legs, but Mr Southall came up with ways to keep Atlas going.
In the weeks leading up to the adventure, Mr Southall bought Atlas a watch that could measure his steps.
“In the weeks leading up to it, I bought him one of those watches … so you can measure your steps.”
When he’d worn himself out during the trek, Atlas would catch a lift on Mr Southall’s shoulders or those of Sherpa porter Nima.
The sweeping views of mountains, yak trains and helicopters also provided plenty of distraction from sore legs.
“He’s definitely one of the youngest that’s been up there. But this was not about going and trying to blow a trumpet and set a world record,” he said.
“This was a fact that Dad needed to take his little boy with him on one of his adventures.”
Dancing in snow, and frozen toes
Everest Base Camp is the launching point for expeditions hoping to summit the world’s highest mountain.
Even getting that far comes with its share of ups and downs, though.
“The best bits were seeing the snow, having fun and seeing the yaks,” Atlas said.
A long way from his home in Queensland, Atlas danced in the snow when he saw it for the first time.
The higher they climbed toward Base Camp, the less oxygen there was in the air.
“To actually stay at Base Camp itself is a really uncomfortable experience, because you’re really low on oxygen and even taking your shoes and socks off, you get out of breath,” Mr Southall said.
“It’s minus 20 outside, so it’s not the most inviting of environments.”
That bitter cold is something Atlas won’t forget in a hurry.
“The worst bit of the trip was when my feet were so cold that they almost turned to ice,” he said.
Mr Southall got him in front of a gas fire and into a sleeping bag to warm up.
“Within 20 minutes he was smiling and laughing again,” he said.
Inspiring others to have a go
On the way down from Base Camp, Atlas was something of a celebrity among the other trekkers.
“The number of high fives Atlas was getting on the way down from other trekkers who were on their way up going, ‘Oh my God, if you’ve just done it then I can do it’,” Mr Southall said.
“And you can see [Atlas] grow internally from that.”
Mr Southall hopes experiences like this will set Atlas up for life.
“I think the resilience thing for kids is really important [to] make them realise that they can do stuff,” he said.
“To give them that inner strength to go, ‘I can do it’, and see at the end that they have done it.”
He also hopes stories about their adventure might get more families outdoors.
“If we can inject that mindset into other kids by inspiring them to go and do it, then I think hopefully we’re doing a good thing,” Mr Southall said.
And what did Atlas think of the world’s tallest mountain, Everest?
“Really, really huge.”
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