Guwahati, June 30: His first attempt was foiled by an avalanche. An earthquake and several avalanches thwarted his second. The third time, he was successful.

Assam mountaineer Naba Kumar Phukan, undaunted, overcame all odds to summit the 8,846m Mt Everest on May 20.

It was sheer determination and dedication that finally helped him reach the top of the world. His celebration, though, lacked the sheen. Courtesy, a humongous bank loan on his head.

Phukan is the sixth from Assam to scale the highest peak of the world.

Tarun Saikia was the first, followed by Manish Kumar Deka from the same expedition. This year, three members of a team from Assam Mountaineering Association (AMA) - Nanda Dulal Das, David Henry Teron and Khorsing Ingty - scaled the peak a day before Phukan did.

While the AMA team was fully funded by the state government, 42-year-old Phukan walked the extra mile, alone, to realise a dream he had dreamt as a Class V student.

"I read about Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay who scaled Mt Everest for the first time and almost instantly I got drawn to the idea. I thought to myself I will reach the top of that peak and see how the world looks from there. And the sight is mesmerising," said an exuberant Phukan, who returned to his hometown Sivasagar on June 2.

The dream, however, took the greater part of his childhood and his youth.

"A constant craving to reach the summit, a continuous process of training the mind and body for the worst," is what Phukan said he went through since his young age.

Phukan, who claimed to have not received any support from the government, had to return from the Everest camping site - Khumbu - twice. On April 18, 2014, an avalanche that killed 16 Nepali guides ( sherpas) and subsequently prompting the Nepal government to stop all expeditions, left Phukan disappointed for the first time. He was camped around 200m away from the avalanche site.

"It was a near-death experience," Phukan said.

The next year, he made another attempt and on May 24, he was in Khumbu again. Next day, the 8.1 magnitude earthquake rocked Nepal, killing 8,000 people and triggering several avalanches. The expeditions were once again cancelled.

"The more hurdles came in the way, the more committed I became. If somehow, I had failed this year, I would have attempted again, with or without the government's help. Only the bank loan amount would have increased," Phukan said.

A state sports department employee, Phukan said he spent Rs 58 lakh till date to summit the peak.

"In 2015, I had taken Rs 14 lakh from a bank and the next year, I had taken a Rs 10-lakh loan. I was not selected by the AMA and yet, I scaled the peak. Had they selected me, I would not have borrowed such a huge amount," Phukan said.

Having scaled the highest of the seven summits, Phukan will now attempt to scale the rest of the summits - Africa's Kilimanjaro, Antarctica's Vinson, Australia Plate's Carstensz Pyramid (Puncak Jaya), North America's Denali, Pacific Plate's Mauna Kea and South America's Aconcagua.

"I will ask the government for help off course, if not, I will go on my own," said a determined Phukan.