India’s youngest climber eyes peak success

At the age of 16, Arjun Vajpai is the youngest Indian to successfully climb Mount Everest and aims to be the first Indian to scale all the mountains in the world whose total height is more than 8,000 metres!

Breaking the record created by Krishna Patil of Maharashtra, who climbed Mt Everest at the age of 19, Arjun Vajpai became the youngest Indian to climb the summit at 16 at 06:33 am (Kathmandu Time) on 22 May, 2012. Inspired by Reinhold Messner who has climbed all the 14 mountains which measure more than 8,000 mts, Arjun too is preparing himself to challenge the same limit and at the same time be the first Indian to do it. 

Arjun is an alumnus of Ryan International School, Noida, and is currently pursuing Bsc in Marketing from IILM, New Delhi. Arjun had fascination for trekking and mountaineering from childhood. He has done Diploma in Mountaineering from Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, Uttrakhand and Basic and Advance Mountaineering Course from the same college.

Along with Mount Everest, Arjun also became the youngest to climb Mt Manaslu on October 4, 2011, at 10 am and Mt Lhotse which is fourth highest mountain in the world and has been honoured by the Chief of Army Staff, Sports Minister Of India, and Tourism Minister Of India in 2010 for his excellent performance.

Setbacks are something which everyone goes through while achieving one’s dream. Even Arjun had to face a few which he definitely overcame. A recipient of ‘Young Indian Leaders’ Award by the IBN Network, he shares, “My parents were a bit hesitant about sending me and were apprehensive about it. The ones which I faced on the way to the Mt. Everest peak were regular ice falls, dead bodies of the climbers who could not make through which set me back mentally. 

One has to be careful while climbing one wrong step and you could risk your life. Apart from that it was definitely fun. I am happy that I came back home in one piece. My trainers at my mountaineering institute encouraged me a lot.”

The feeling of achieving success is amazing and that too at the height of 8,848 meters is “incredibly” amazing. He says, “the feeling of seeing the earth bending round from that height cannot be bought even at the price of 10 billion dollars. It was worth it. There are many people who might have strived for this.”

So what has the young achiever planned for his future? His dream is to climb all the 14 mountains and has planned to make his future in the same field and he thinks this award will definitely help him get recognition.