Last year, Aarav Parmar began reading a book called Peak.
The novel chronicled a 14-year-old boy summiting Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain. After reading it, Aarav thought to himself, "I should climb Everest, too."
In March, at just 13 years old, Aarav, alongside his father, Rishi, and mother, Sirin, spent eight days hiking to Everest Base Camp, which has an 18,192-foot elevation. Aarav did so with an Eagles Autism Foundation flag in his bag, raising over $7,000 for the organization.
"I have a lot of family and friends who have autism, and I wanted to see if I could help them in any way," Aarav said. "I read about it and I saw good foundations to help people with autism, and the Eagles Autism Foundation came up. Since the Eagles are my favorite football team, I really wanted to do it."
Aarav's climbing journey began when he was just 5 years old. With his family, he climbed Emerald Lake in Colorado as part of Rocky Mountain National Park, which has an elevation of over 10,000 feet.
When Aarav was 11, he did his highest elevation hike to date, summiting Mount Kilimanjaro (19,341 feet). During that climb, Rishi noticed that Aarav never complained. Rishi admitted that he and his wife, Sirin, had their moments, but they didn't once hear anything from Aarav. So, when Aarav pitched the idea of reaching Base Camp of Mount Everest, his parents knew he was serious.
Aarav got in touch with the Eagles Autism Foundation and began planning his adventure. Sirin is from Nepal, so it doubled as an opportunity to spend time with her family, too.
The hike to Base Camp began on March 12. As they made their way up, internet service was scarce, but every time they had a connection, there was an encouraging message from the Eagles Autism Foundation team waiting in his inbox.
"He will read these emails whenever we get internet, and that pushed him this time around because it was really, really hard," Rishi said. "Much harder than Kilimanjaro. And he always felt that responsibility, that I have this flag in my backpack. I have people who have given money for this cause, and I have to make sure that I go and have this flag with me when I reach the Base Camp."
The conditions were difficult as the last four days were brutally cold. "You're actually walking and sleeping in almost the same clothes because it's just so cold. You will try to brush your teeth, but you can't have water because it's all frozen," Rishi said.
But after eight days, the entire family made it to Base Camp, where they posed for pictures, proudly hoisting the Eagles Autism Foundation flag.
Altogether, Aarav and his family agreed that it was the most difficult hike they had done.
"Every day was at least seven to eight hours of walking," Aarav said. "Every day was just a new struggle that we'd find out. It was like a mystery, how hard the day was gonna be."
After they made it off the mountain, Aarav's first meal was chicken chili. As Sirin put it, "He just wiped out everything on the plate."
It was a monumental trip for the Parmar family, one that culminated in a donation to the Eagles Autism Foundation and countless memories. — Written by Matt Ryan
