This 5-year-old is training to be the youngest Singaporean to reach Everest base camp

SINGAPORE: It was literally a walk in the park for Abyan Imtiaz Irkiz, who ran or bounced most of the way at the Windsor Nature Park trail while nattering to his father about terrapins, streams and whatever else caught his eye.

The sure-footed five-year-old gamely took on steps and slopes, at a pace that made this reporter and a visual journalist pant, as we tagged along on their weekly trek. They soon left their siblings – sister Ayra, 10, and brother Aryan, who is nearly three, and mum War War Lwin Tun behind.

More than 2km into the trek, Abyan and father Zikri Ali started up a steep slope.

"Come, let's go. We're going to push ourselves up the slope, we're going to walk fast. Then we'll catch our breath when we're going down ok?" said Mr Zikri, 41, to his son.

"Okay," said Abyan, who began trotting up.

When he started flagging midway, his father promised him a reward when they were done. "Can we have ice cream?" said Abyan with glee.

With renewed vigour, the pair raced up to touch a rope at the top of the slope. Then it was back down to the base of the slope where they caught their breath. They climbed up and down the slope four times in total.

It will be four more months of training for Abyan and father Zikri before they set off on their father-and-son adventure in April to the Everest Base Camp – 5,364m above sea level.

Besides walks at Windsor and MacRitchie Reservoir, they walk and climb stairs, do yoga stretches to recover and practise breathing techniques to fend off potential altitude sickness.

If they reach the camp in Nepal, where mountaineers attempt to summit Mount Everest, Abyan will make it into the Singapore Book of Records as the youngest Singaporean to reach Everest Base Camp.

The Singapore record is currently held by Om Madan Garg, who was six when he reached the South base camp in October 2022. The youngest climber ever to reach the camp is three.

Mr Zikri, who owns and runs a yoga studio with his wife, got the idea of taking Abyan on the trek when he read about Om Madan's record-breaking feat.

The family happened to be in Nepal on a yoga retreat in November 2022 when he read the news article, and Mr Zikri noticed that Abyan took to the mountain trails there with ease.

The young boy had always liked to climb, said mum War War. He climbed at the playground, and even hung off the door and window grilles at home.

"We realised that before he could even walk, he was climbing," she said.

"He's always trying to climb the door grilles, the window grilles, which is quite scary for parents, but I realise that that's probably his forte – psychomotor skills."

From one year old, he tried rock climbing at a climbing gym for kids. Abyan now does rock climbing training at The Rock School.

Mr Zikri said he had planned to attempt Everest Base Camp in 2018 with some friends but had to pull out due to an injury.

"I've always wanted to do it, then I was thinking: He can complete the trek (in Nepal) which was about 12km, and he could handle the ups and downs," he said.

"So ... maybe with some training, he can actually accomplish this and it could be a very fun adventure for the two of us."

Before the adventure, however, there's lots of training to be done. They trek at a park weekly and will slowly lengthen the route from 7km or 8km currently to about 15km.

They also climb 70 to 80 storeys of stairs three times a week, and will up this to 200 floors, four to five times a week.

"I find that the recovery process is also very important. Because over days, the soreness will compound, so we are incorporating some yoga poses in his training so that it can help to speed up his muscle recovery," said Mr Zikri.

"Another aspect of the training is for the altitude sickness. But we can't simulate that, so what we are doing is teaching him breathing techniques that can increase his lung capacity and improve his oxygen absorption."

The family often trains together – climbing stairs or going on walks – but only father and son will be making the climb. They are aiming to reach Everest Base Camp on Apr 29, when Abyan will be five years and 10 months old.

They will start from Lukla, a Nepalese town at an altitude of 2,846m, commonly known as the gateway to Everest. From there, it will be four to six hours of walking for about 12 days, to the base camp and back, including two rest days to acclimatise to the conditions at high altitude.

Mr Zikri expects to bump into mountaineering expeditions to summit Everest, and hopes they will inspire Abyan to greater heights.

"Our plan is to try and reach Everest Base Camp end of April. I think it'll be buzzing and there will be a lot of other expeditions there. It will be a nice sight for him to see: 'Wow ... people are trying to summit Everest'.

"And maybe inspire him next time to even summit Everest when he grows up."

One complication of training a kindergartener is that it can't be too intense, said Mr Zikri.

"We can't go too fast, and I need to tone down the intensity for him so that it's still fun for him ... (so the challenge is) keeping it fun for him and getting him to stay motivated."

Ms Lwin Tun said that there are times when the parents set the pace for Abyan, but there are also days when his father asks the boy what he wants to do.

"Actually he's a very driven child," she said. "Sometimes he surprises us, like we say three times is enough, but he does, I want to do (the slope) one more time, can I do it one more time? And we're like, are you sure?"

They have also received some backlash from others who think they are "crazy" for attempting this, said the couple.

"When we share this news to people around us, clearly we get a lot of 'lashes'. Are you sure you want to do this with a five-year-old? Are you crazy – even adults may not handle it very well," said Ms Lwin Tun.

"Me and Zikri, we are quite aligned, thankfully, in that sense. So we want to try and Abyan wants to try ... I think support your child, mitigate the risk as much as possible, if they have an interest like climbing."

On Saturday morning, after climbing 101 floors at Skyville@Dawson, Abyan went on to play with monkey bars and the balance beam at the fitness corner – barely pausing to take a drink and have a lollipop.

When asked if he was sure whether he could reach Everest Base Camp, he said "yes". And what will he do on the mountain?

"I want to play with the snow ... and build a snowman," said the five-year-old. "I will bring a carrot to be the nose."