Shimla, Aug 8 (IANS): Seven girl students of Lawrence School in Himachal Pradesh's Sanawar have set out to capture Africa's highest range - Mount Kilimanjaro - located at 5,895 metres above sea level, the school said on Thursday.

The girls, aged between 15 and 18 years, were shortlisted on the basis of performance and their physical and mental fitness.

According to the school, the selected girls underwent rigorous preparatory training in February. As part of the training, they attended two camps which were organised in Rishikesh in Uttarakhand and in Ladakh.

Mount Kilimanjaro is the world's highest free standing mountain and climbing it takes between five to nine days, depending upon the routes undertaken.

Global bicycle major Hero Cycles is co-sponsoring their mountain expedition.

The students are Ishampreet Kaur, Roshni, Avanti Aggarwal, Mahika Goel, Ananya Panchhar, Megan Bhagirat, and Kashish Pathania.

The 11-day expedition is led by renowned mountaineer Ajeet Bajaj, while the group in-charge is Priya Dhillon.

In May 2018, Bajaj completed an expedition to the Mount Everest along with his daughter and later in the year successfully scaled the highest peak in Antarctica.