Arjun Vajpai world’s youngest to scale 6 peaks above 8,000M
kathmandu — Indian mountaineer Arjun Vajpai this week became the youngest person in the world to scale six peaks of over 8,000 metres when he summited the treacherous Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world.
But the real pinnacle, says the 24-year-old, would be when he achieves the “grand slam” of mountaineering — scaling all 14 mountains over 8,000 metres across the world.
On May 20, the Noida-based mountaineer scaled the 8,586-metre Kangchenjunga at 8:05am IST, but could not come down from the Advanced Base Camp till Thursday morning due to severe weather.
Vajpai, who became the third youngest person to scale the Mount Everest at the age of 16 in 2010, started his journey to the Kangchenjunga peak on April 26 from the Advanced Base Camp, situated at a height of 5,400 metres.
Supported by soft drink brand Mountain Dew India’s ‘Risk Takers of India’ campaign on his adventurous journey, Vajpai says the feat is the result of “combined effort” of a team of sherpas and mountaineers.
“There was no perfect recipe but a little of everything mixed into the mess. So in the end it was like a beautiful montage of things falling into place,” Vajpai said.
“This time we had a great team with us. The coordination between the sherpas and the climbing members was much better. We did better planning for the mission,” he said.
The weather conditions were initially very tricky, Vajpai said. The weather reporters would predict something and the ground reality would turn out different.
His friend Alex, who filmed the whole experience till the summit, was a great morale booster, he said.
“Credit also goes to a fixing team that included three-four sherpas who played a vital role in helping us solve this challenge,” Vajpai said.
This year’s expedition was Vajpai’s second bid at scaling the peak. Last year, he had to return from Camp 2, at a height of 6400 metres.
Naseeb Puri, director, Mountain Dew, PepsiCo India, said, “At Mountain Dew, we are firm believers that we have the ability to break out of the ordinary. We strive to inspire the youth to conquer the real mountain — the one that resides with each of us.”—