Arjun youngest to scale 6 top peaks

Tseram (Nepal), May 25

The thunder of helicopter breaks early morning silence as mountaineer Arjun Vajpai lands in this eastern Nepal village after scaling Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest peak. Vajpai has become the youngest person in the world to have scaled six peaks above 8,000 metres.

The 24-year-old achieved the feat on May 20, after a gruelling climb that saw him battle the changing weather patterns and depletion of his oxygen supply near the summit.

He did not feel scared during the arduous journey that posed risks of avalanches, falling rocks and crevasses. The feat has special significance for Vajpai as he rates the climb to 8,586-metre Kanchenjunga as “technically” the toughest of his high mountain ascents so far, including the Mount Everest.

The young mountaineer has come back to Kanchenjunga base camp after scaling the peak and had been waiting for his father Colonel Sanjiv Vajpai (retired), who eventually could reach him and bring him down to Chairam in a challenging helicopter sortie on Thursday. Arjun Vajpai intends to become the youngest person in the world to scale all 14 above 8,000 metre-peaks. The next mountain on his list is Shishapangma (8,013 metres) in Nyalam County, Tibet. — IANS