The Kanchenjunga story: Arjun Vajpai climbs the third highest peak in the world

Barely 1200 meters away from summiting Mt Kachenjunga, Arjun Vajpai's entire journey as a mountaineer flashed right in front of his eyes.

He looked beyond the clouds at Mt Everest, Mt Makalu and Mt Lhotse, and recalled how far he had come.

Vajpai became the youngest mountaineer at 24 to have scaled six peaks above 8,000 meters after successfully climbing Kanchenjunga on May 20.

"I had this flash of memories of the journey I had started with the Everest in 2010. I wondered how far we had come... how far we had survived...how far we had dreamt, and how much dreams could motivate," Vajpai remembered.

Kanchenjunga, the third highest peak in the world, that lies partly in Nepal and partly in the Indian state of Sikkim, was one of the most difficult ones to scale, he added.

The subzero temperature, uncertain weather, lack of supplementary oxygen were only some of the hurdles Vajpai and his team faced on their way.

"Despite years of training, planning and learning from earlier climbers, Kanchenjunga was technically the toughest in all six of my expeditions," the Noida-based mountaineer said.

His past records include summiting Mount Everest in 2010 as a boy of 16, becoming the youngest mountaineer to be on Mt Lhotse in 2011, and successfully climbing Mount Makalu in 2016 after three earlier attempts, among many others.

But, the insatiable desire to climb mountains one after another was not born overnight.

Retired colonel and Arjun's father Sanjiv Vajpai narrated how the young climber always found an unusual way of getting from one point to another since he was a child.

"He was never too good with studies, but was very athletic. If he had to go from one room to another, he would rather hop over chairs and sofas instead of walking straight," the colonel quipped.

Vajpai said, as a child, he might not have been sure what he desired, but he certainly knew what he did not want -- academics.

"My way of learning and seeking knowledge was not the academic way. I was always an outdoor person," he told PTI.

And, on one such outing in the Sahyadris, a 10-year-old Vajpai had an epiphanic moment as he saw the sun going down from the top of Hanuman Tekri hill.

He wanted to lead a life trekking and climbing mountains.

"My journey started from there," he said.

After Vajpai, whose expedition was supported by Mountain Dew, and his team left from the camp 4 at 7,400 meters for the final summit push, which lasted about 12-13 hours, they climbed an endless steep that he likened with mountains drawn by kids as straight triangles.

"Kanchenjunga was like that in the final stretch... without any place to stop, rest or even to take out our backpacks for water bottles," he said.

As the supplies ran out at the final summit ridge, every moment felt like the last one when.

"Some 20 people were hanging on to a thin 8mm rope. It was one of the most difficult challenges that we had faced. If one of them fell, it was not going to hold.

"And if you fall from there you will go down till camp 4. A straight drop of almost 1000 meters."
"That was the first time I felt my body was under attack. We didn't know how we would come down from there."