Arjun Vajpai (born 9 June 1993) is an Indian

mountaineer Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports ...

who became the world's youngest mountaineer to

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

six peaks over 8,000 meters in the year 2018. Arjun climbed

Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...

in 2010 at the age of 16 years, 11 months, and 18 days, becoming the youngest Indian to climb Everest at that time. He broke a record set by Krushnaa Patil of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

, who climbed Mount Everest at the age of 19. On 20 May 2011, he became the youngest person ever to summit

Lhotse Lhotse ( ; ; ) is the List of highest mountains#List, fourth-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga. At an elevation of above sea level, the main summit is on the border between Tibet Autonomous Region of Chin ...

, aged 17 years, 11 months, and 16 days.

Personal life

Arjun Vajpai is the son of Col. Sanjeev Vajpai and Priya Vajpai from

Noida Noida (), short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (ISO: ), is a city located in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. As per provisional reports of Census of India, the population of Noida in 2011 was ...

. He studied at International School, Noida. He underwent training at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering,

Uttarkashi Uttarkashi is a town and the headquarters of Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand, India. Geography Uttarkashi is located at . It has an average elevation of . Demographics India census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is t ...

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

Climbing career

Vajpai also climbed

Manaslu Manaslu (; , also known as Kutang) is the List of highest mountains#List, eighth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. It is in the Mansiri Himal, part of the Nepalese Himalayas, in west-central Nepal. Manaslu means "mountain of the ...

on 4 October 2011. After 3 failed attempts on Mount Makalu, he climbed it on 22 May 2016, during his fourth attempt. On 14 October 2015 Arjun Vajpai along with mountaineer Bhupesh Kumar scaled an unnamed peak high in Spiti valley,

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

and named it Mount Kalam in memory of late

President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. Arjun Vajpai scaled

Cho Oyu Cho Oyu ( Nepali: चोयु; ; ) is the sixth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. Cho Oyu means " Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan. The mountain is the westernmost major peak of the '' Khumbu'' sub-section of the Mahalangur Him ...

accompanied by Pasang Norbu Sherpa and Lakpa Sherpa. During one of his attempts at Mount

, Tibet (the easiest 8,000 metres peak), in 2012, he was paralysed for two days, at an altitude of . The Swiss adventurer Olivier Racine came to his rescue giving him appropriate medicine. Vajpai was rescued from Mount Annapurna in April 2023 while returning from the summit.

Summits

* 2010:

(8,849 m) * 2011:

(8,163 m) * 2011:

(8,516 m) * 2016:

(8,188 m) * 2016:

Makalu Makalu (; ) is the fifth-highest mountain on Earth, with a summit at an elevation of AMSL. It is located in the Mahalangur Himalayas southeast of Mount Everest, on the China–Nepal border. One of the eight-thousanders, Makalu is an isolat ...

(8,485 m) * 2018:

Kangchenjunga Kangchenjunga is the third-highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', which is bounded in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak River and Jongsang La, and ...

(8,586 m) * 2023:

Annapurna Annapurna (; ) is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the 10th highest mountain in the world at above sea level and is well known for the difficulty and danger involved in its as ...

(Rescued) (8,091 m) * 2024:

Shishapangma Shishapangma, or Shishasbangma or Xixiabangma ( zh, s=希夏邦马, p=Xī xià bāng mǎ), is the 14th-highest mountain in the world, at above sea level. The lowest 8,000 metre peak, it is located entirely within Tibet. Name Geologist Toni H ...

(8,027 m)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vajpai, Arjun 1993 births Living people Indian summiters of Mount Everest

Personal life

Climbing career

Summits

See also

References