In the spring of 2025, 🇧🇩 Ikramul Hasan Shakil stood at the very top of the world the summit of Mount Everest as dawn broke over the Himalayas.

31 years old. Breathing thin air 8,848.86 meters above sea level.

But this was not just a summit.

This was the final step of a journey that began far, far below at sea level, where waves lapped at the shores of Inani Beach in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Eighty-four days earlier, on February 25, Shakil dipped his feet into the Bay of Bengal and began walking.

Walking toward the roof of the world.

A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Youth Advocate, Shakil was not merely chasing a personal dream. He was carrying a message of climate urgency, of sustainability, of the deep link between lowland communities and the fragile highlands above.

Inspired by Australian climber Tim Macartney-Snape’s legendary 1990 “Sea to Summit” feat, Shakil set out to do more. To walk longer. To raise his voice higher. To bridge the gap between land and sky.

He crossed bustling towns and silent villages. Fields of rice. Roads clogged with buses. Trails of dust and mud. And then, rivers the mighty Jamuna among them, where Shakil swam 3 kilometers, not for survival, but for symbolism.

Water to snow. Delta to glacier.

Step by aching step, he traversed 1,374 kilometers on foot a journey of purpose stitched across three nations. Then, came the mountain.

At Everest Base Camp, Shakil joined the 8K Expeditions team, led by veteran climber and expedition leader Lakpa Sherpa. Where Shakil was accompanied by Tashi Gyaljen Sherpa, the high-altitude powerhouse who astonisingly scaled Everest four times in a single climbing season this year.

As they ascended the Khumbu Icefall and passed the death zone’s bitter wind, the expedition remained focused, steady, and swift. And at 6:30 AM Nepal time, on Monday, May 19, Shakil reached the summit.

The highest point on Earth. The finish line of a journey that began at sea level.

But for Shakil, the view was not about achievement. It was about awareness.

He stood atop Everest not just as a mountaineer but as a messenger.

Shakil’s campaign aimed to raise awareness for sustainable environmental solutions across South Asia. The image of him walking from sea to summit was more than dramatic it was a symbol of the planetary chain of cause and effect.

He is now planning to submit his expedition to Guinness World Records, hoping to write this human-powered walk into history 1,374 kilometers on foot, across landscapes, altitudes, and elements, in just 84 days.

And yet, his accomplishment is not just about setting records or earning accolades.

It is about connection.

Between Bangladesh’s coastlines and Nepal’s mountains. Between human endurance and planetary fragility. Between the idea of what one person can do, and the global change that effort can inspire.

As he descended the mountain, winds howling and crampons crunching into ice, Shakil carried something more than the memory of the summit.

He carried a story.

A story of movement from sea to summit, from silence to voice.

A story that now belongs to every person who dares to believe that action matters. That climate justice matters. That one journey taken resolve can rise to the top of the world.

And echo back down to the shores where it all began.