A hike up a mountain on Langkawi island three years ago turned Robert Junqi Wild into a mountaineering buff.

Robert is only 15 and an otherwise typical Beatty Secondary School student. But since 2005, he has scaled several peaks and aims to complete the Seven Summits by the time he is 19.

The Seven Summits are the highest mountains on each of the seven continents of the world.

The Singaporean teen said he enjoyed his mountain trek while in Langkawi, which is off the coast of Kedah in Malaysia.

Then, while on a holiday in Sabah in 2006, he made a spur-of-the-moment decision to climb the 4,095m-high Mount Kinabalu.

He 'suffered' as he lacked warm clothing then, but he was hooked.

The next year, Robert went to Tanzania in Africa to climb the 5,895m-high Mount Kilimanjaro - one of the Seven Summits. He joined a small group of trekkers who teased him about his age.

'They wondered, 'Is this kid crazy?', but they were very supportive. The first two days were rough because I had to get used to living in a tent and doing my business in the wild,' he said.

Despite a bout of diarrhoea, he and his new friends reached the summit on the eighth day.

'I had never seen anything so big and beautiful,' he said.

Since then, he has been building up his strength and skills by climbing Bukit Timah Hill with weights and making small trekking trips to Malaysia. Next year, he will attempt, with a local guide, another of the Seven Summits: the 5,642m-high Mount Elbrus in Russia.

Will he be lonely? He said: 'It will be okay. I'll just listen to some music or look at the scenery. I'm now much better prepared.'

Shuli Sudderuddin

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Oct 12, 2008.