The youngest Indian to climb Mt Everest aims to scale new heights. Eighteen-year-old Arjun Vajpai has set his eyes on a new record. “It is my quest to put Indians among the elite group of mountaineers to have climbed the 14 highest peaks in the world,” says the Delhi boy. He will be leaving for China today to scale two eight-thousander peaks there — Mt Cho Oyu and Mt Shishapangma.
Talking about the challenge ahead, Arjun shares that Mt Shishapangma would be tougher of the two. “Technically, Mt Cho Oyu will be easier and less energy consuming to scale. I hope to cover both at one go and I am excited about clicking good pictures from there,” he adds.
Although he is already the youngest mountaineer to have scaled three eight-thousander peaks (Mt Everest, Mt Lohtse, Mt Manaslu), he’s set new goals for himself — he wants to be the youngest in the world to climb five eight-thousanders, the youngest to climb Mt Shishapangma, the youngest to scale two eight-thousanders (Mt Cho Oyu and Mt Shishapangma) in one season. “It’s like achieving the grand slam of mountaineering. I will start in April and try and finish by May end,” says Arjun.
Asked what motivated him to climb such dangerous peaks at such a young age, he says, “It’s the view from the summit of the peak that’s really thrilling. It’s really addictive and motivates me to get on top again and again. It’s like living on the edge,” says Arjun who will be accompanied by two sherpas and his coach on the journey.
To prepare himself for the feat, Arjun has followed a rigorous training and diet regimen. He says, “I underwent eights hours of rigorous work session twice a day. I was on high cardio muscular exercise, which helps strengthen muscle. The exercise was coupled with high protein and carbohydrate diet with 5,000 calories intake a day. It included eight eggs, three litres of full cream milk, fish, sprouts and meat daily.”
Arjun’s next target is to scale K2 (8,611 metres), the most dangerous and the second highest mountain peak in Pakistan.