Srinagar: Wearing sports shoes with polycarbonate goggles on, Rizza Alee on a sunny Friday readies himself for a 20 kilometers run with his friends.
He is warming up his body with a couple of aerobic exercises before he could give a call for starting their journey from Hawal to Narbal.
He is not going to participate in any marathon, but is developing a stamina to fulfill his dream to become the first Kashmiri teenager to conquer Mount Everest.
Coming from an ordinary family of Nowlari Pattan, Rizza recently attained a feat to climb 6153m Stok Kangri peak in Ladakh last month.
With this success, Alee, who recently finished his 12th from Sri Pratap Higher Secondary School, has decided to set a record to inspire small-town athletes to dream bigger.
In June, he took to this expedition with his friend from Delhi Shubham on June 12 at 9:30 am and reached the Camp 1 i.e, 4400m at 12:30pm.
“It was for the first time I was going to summit 6000 m, but I was no stranger to it. It is indescribable how I felt when we conquered 6153m peak,” he says.
Narrating his experience while trekking the Stok Kangri peak, Alee says, “We stayed for the night and left at 8:30am for camp 3, which is at a height of 5118m and reached there at 1:30pm. We made a stop before the final summit push, braced ourselves for the worst,” Alee said.
Unlike other sportspersons, Alee’s journey from an ordinary shy school boy to an emerging trekker has not been a cakewalk.
The interesting thing about him is not necessarily how incredible of an athlete he is but as an aspiring sportsperson he fought all odds single handedly to prepare himself for upcoming challenge.
“I had a problem called Right Bundle Branch Block in my heart and everybody thought I will never do anything like climbing. But fortunately now doctors have acknowledged that my heart is athletic like my physique,” he says.
Alee says choosing climbing his passion was earlier objected by many within family.
“I didn’t get any support initially and my parents would always suggest me to forget my passion. But ultimately with my recent success, they are getting more interested in my future plan now. I have made it that one day I will make them feel proud,” he says.
While Alee dreams to achieve bigger in life, he hopes to get sponsorship to fulfill his dreams.
“I am thankful to my mentor Manzoor Mir, who has inspired me all along and has been helping me to achieve what I couldn’t have done alone. I hope now someone will further come forward to help me in conquering mighty Mount Everest,” he says.
