After a successful ascent of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, 18-year-old Noida boy Arjun Vajpayee on Tuesday achieved another feat by scaling the 8,163-metre-high Mount Manaslu in the western Nepal Himalayas. Out on an odyssey to climb most of the 8,000-metre peaks in the world, Vajpayee probably became the world’s youngest mountaineer to reach the top of the world’s eighth-highest peak, early Tuesday morning, Ang Tshering Sherpa, the chairman of Asian Trekking Pvt. Ltd that organised the expedition, said.
The Noida schoolboy had summited Mt. Everest (8,848 m), the highest peak in the world, in May 2010, but lost the race to a 14-year-old American boy to be the youngest to step atop the summit.
But not to lose morale, Vajpayee has since also climbed Everest’s neighbour, the 8,516m Mt. Lhotse. He has now set a record of being the youngest person to have climbed three 8,000-metre peaks.
An overjoyed Arjun called his home in Noida at 11 am on stepping foot on Manaslu peak. In his arduous ascent the teenager was accompanied by two Sherpa, Mingma Sherpa and Nima Tshering Sherpa. He has now returned to camp III after the successful ascent.
He was planning to spend the night at camp III and return to base camp the next day, according to his family sources. Arjun has completed his 12th grade from Ryan International College and is currently pursuing his bachelor’s degree at IILM College, Delhi, with marketing as specialisation.