Why climbing Mount Everest is no child's play

"Hello, I'd like to go for the Everest base camp trek with my daughter next May", a voice on the phone says. "That's lovely," I say, "how old is she and what's your trekking experience?

"Oh, she's six, and we've done short treks together."

Really? I wonder. And that qualifies you for a grueling high altitude trek that more experienced mortals have succumbed to? "I'm sorry," I tell her, "The MHE does not encourage young children on a high altitude trek like this.

"But why? A 13-year-old summitted Everest last year!"

Sigh… See here's the thing. In my opinion, a 13-year-old should never have been allowed to climb the mighty Sagarmatha. More power to her that she succeeded and lived to tell the tale, but honestly, a word of caution to helicopter parents - your child may not be so lucky. Climbing Mount Everest or any mountain, for that matter, is about training, lung power, stamina, a sense of judgment that comes from experience and the ability to push your body when the mind has given up. Summiting the Everest is more of a trudge and less technical, than say, Kanchenjunga, but it's a long tough trudge that can do a hardened soldier in. You can have the best sherpas possible, an experienced team handling your operations, the most experienced trekking leader, but the vagaries of weather and the sheer number of variables involved leaves one breathless. Your luck can take a turn for the worse when least expected, and danger often lurks around the corner.

Crevasse falls, whiteouts where worsening visibility and disorientation could lead you astray, falling rocks and avalanches, hurricanes at 27,000ft, AMS... the list is long. But for me, the worst has to be passing by the bodies of past climbers. Brave men and women who succumbed to the cold and exhaustion, their bodies perfectly preserved by the freezing winds. Some of these bodies have become regular "landmarks" that climbers use as markers on their way up. Can you imagine the morbidity of that? What that could do to the psyche of a 11 or 12 or even 13-year-old?

You need experience to navigate through the treacherous topography and sadly enough, reaching the top isn't the end of the challenge - it's the descent that is equally demanding. An international research team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators found that most deaths occur during descents from the summit in the region above 8,000 metre ominously called the "death zone". "You've used up all your reserves, all your energy, all your motivation to reach the top. Getting down makes it that much riskier and harder" says Colonel "Bull" Kumar, India's most celebrated mountain climber-soldier.

I know none of this is going to stop ambitious parents from pushing their kids harder than their young minds and bodies can withstand. I just hope it will make them stop and think, before they make that phone call. Erik Lambert of The American Alpine Club, puts it rather succinctly: "It comes down to being physically prepared, mentally prepared, emotionally prepared and knowing what you can expect." A bit of a tall ask for a child not yet in his/her teens, isn't it?