Pedalling to the highest peak | Fusion - WeRIndia

Satyen Das, 44 years old, pedalled for 68 days and covered 3,000 kms to become the first man (or woman, for that matter!) to touch remote Ladakh valley and reach the highest 17,600-foot Himalayan pass.

He started from Kolkata and rode through Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Srinagar and Kargil. He even crossed the famous Khardung La pass in Ladakh. After he crossed Pathankot in Jammu and Kashmir, locals told him that they had never even seen a rickshaw in the village, says Das.

At one point, he faced a group of bears, and at another he faced a snow leopard in the middle of the night! A German woman cycling on her own offered him a bunk in her tent.

Satyen Das is a rickshaw-puller from Kolkata, who finally returned home after his long journey. He now wants to get into the Guinness Book of World Records for pedaling a rickshaw at 5,000 metres. The Naktala Agrani Club in south Kolkata financed his ride, raising Rs 80,000 from the club members, who got impressed by his passion and firm resolve.

He wanted to propagate the rickshaw as an eco-friendly transport vehicle and also spread world peace. He was followed for a short distance by a documentary filmmaker from Kolkata, and carried maps to help him pick his way.

However, this is not the first time Das undertook such a long journey. Even in 2008, he drove his wife and daughter in a rickshaw to Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh.