Making Of A Mountaineer

As he trains to ascend Annapurna the worlds 10th highest peak, and the 7th mountain in his ongoing quest to conquer all 14 of the worlds 8000-metre summits by the time he turns 30 Arjun Vajpai talks to us about the rigorous physical and mental fitness regime that keeps him going.

- Alshaar Khan

Mountaineers do what they do for very different reasons. Italian legend Reinhold Messner, the first person to climb all fourteen of the world’s 8,000m mountains, points to something he calls `overview’ to explain the allure. “It is not the mountain but the view from the peak that suggests increased awareness,” he writes in the book Mountains from Space. Then there is late Indian climbing icon Malli Mastan Babu. The Nellore-born IIT and IIM alumnus-turned mountaineer created a world record at age 32 in 2006, when he climbed the highest peaks in all the seven continents of the world (called the Seven Summits). He achieved this feat in 172 days, the shortest span of time taken by anyone. He said he first climbed Mt Everest to fulfil the dream of his schoolmate, who passed away while serving in the army.

“Love (of the mountains) does not have to make sense,” is Noida-based mountaineer Arjun Vajpai’s take on his obsession with climbing the world’s tallest peaks. He made history back in 2010 when he climbed Everest at the age of 16. Now 24, he is hoping to be the youngest to summit all the fourteen 8000 metres-plus mountains in the world, by climbing each of them by the age of 30. In May this year, he conquered the sixth peak on his list, Kanchenjunga, on his second attempt. Located between Nepal and Sikkim, the third highest mountain in the world (8,586m) is always a difficult climb, and Vajpai admits it to be one of the toughest of his career.

Climbing all the 14 eight-thousanders, as they are known, is the holy grail of mountaineering in the world. Only 40 people are believed to have achieved the feat, but the number of verified ascents though is less than half that number, according to the authoritative Himalayan Database.