Fit India Champion Arjun Vajpai creates history; Summits Mt. Annapurna, becomes first Indian man to do so

Arjun made the climb to the 7x8000m summits on April 17 and has now become the first Indian mountaineer to scale 7x8000m peaks.

Arjun Vajpai.

Khel Today Bureau 

New Delhi: Indian professional mountaineer Arjun Vajpai, roped in as a Fit India Champion earlier this year, has become the first Indian man to summit Mt. Annapurna 1, which is also the 10th highest mountain in the world at 8,091 metres (26,545 ft) above sea level in Nepal.

Arjun made the climb to the 7x8000m summits on April 17 and has now become the first Indian mountaineer to scale 7x8000m peaks. Mt. Annapurna happens to be the most dangerous mountain out of the 14x8000m Summit Mountains.

Bestowed the title of a Fit India Champion, Arjun is already a record holder by becoming one of the youngest mountaineers to climb the Mount Everest. Praising the Fit India initiative, the professional mountaineer said, “The vision of Fit India is something I can relate with as well. Fitness has been an integral part of my life and I’ve spent a lot of time in staying fit each day. I try to motivate younger generation by being outside and teach kids the same. I am very happy to be a part of the movement and thank Hon’ble Prime Minister of India for launching this initiative.”

This year, Mt. Annapurna lived up to its reputation for being one of the most difficult and dangerous mountains. While Arjun summited Mt. Annapurna and was back at Camp 4, two Indian climbers were missing by that point and one fellow climber from Ireland died at Camp 4. On the morning of April 18, Arjun and his team decided that the mountain was unsafe for descending all the way up to the Base Camp.

They had run out of resources at the lower camps while several attempts were made to find the missing climbers. Arjun was eventually brought back to base camp with the help of a long-line helicopter.

Arjun has already scaled Mt. Everest, Mt. Lhotse, Mt. Makalu, Mt. Kanchenjunga, Mt. Manaslu, and Cho-Oyu, making several mountaineering world records. He now wants to become the first Indian to scale all the fourteen 8000m summits in the world, now that his target this year of Mt. Annapurna has been achieved.

“It is my dream to climb all 14 mountains above 8000 meters and put India’s flag flying high and become the only Indian to have achieved this feat. Right now my focus is to give my best in order to achieve this daunting task,” he said, following the expedition of Mt Annapurna.