Arjun Vajpai: Improbable Path from Childhood Asthma to Eight 8,000-Meter Summits
Born in Bombay (now Mumbai), Arjun Vajpai is the son of a Maharashtrian mother, an artist from JJ School of Arts, and a father from Etawah, a small town in Uttar Pradesh. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Noida, where he grew up and did all his schooling. Arjun proudly calls himself a “full hearted Noida boy.”
From a young age, Arjun was never a strong academic student. Starting from sixth standard, he often failed classes and had to take multiple retests every year.
However, what he lacked in academics, he made up for on the field. Arjun was involved in nearly every sport imaginable – football, basketball, volleyball, skating, taekwondo, and badminton. If it involved two hands and two legs, he was out there performing.
Despite his athletic abilities, Arjun faced significant health challenges.He was born with childhood asthma, a condition that ran in his family through his father and grandfather.
This respiratory weakness would later transform into one of his greatest strengths. Through sports and dedicated breathing exercises, Arjun developed incredibly strong lungs that would serve him well in the thin air of high-altitude climbing.
Arjun’s mountaineering journey began unexpectedly in sixth grade. He read a chapter in his Hindi textbook about Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest.
This sparked a dream in young Arjun’s mind. That same year, during summer vacation at his grandmother’s house in Maharashtra, he went on a small trek with his grandfather to a peak called Hanuman Tekdi. Standing there, looking at the beautiful view,
Arjun asked his grandfather how beautiful it might look from the highest point on Earth. Little did he know that within a few years, at just 16 years old, he would find out for himself.
Arjun’s formal training in mountaineering began at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) in Uttarkashi, where he completed both basic and advanced mountaineering courses. He was one of the youngest people in his course.
His instructor, Yashwant Singh Pawar, recognized Arjun’s “innate monkey-like tendency” and boosted his confidence. This tendency to climb had been with Arjun since childhood he was always the one called upon to retrieve balls stuck in trees or on rooftops, and he took immense pride in climbing and jumping from heights.
Training for high-altitude mountaineering was grueling, especially as Arjun set his sights on 8,000-meter peaks. He would run four half-marathons a week, train 8-11 hours a day, cycle 60 kilometers in less than two hours three times a week, and do multiple CrossFit and calisthenics sessions daily.
He maintained a 6,000-calorie diet to build the appropriate muscle and weight needed for such extreme climbs. For mental fitness, he practiced yoga and meditation, focusing particularly on breathing exercises like Anulom Vilom Pranayama and Kapal Bhati.
At the age of 16, Arjun achieved his dream of climbing Mount Everest. On May 22, 2010, at 6:18 am Indian Standard Time, he reached the summit from the south side while climbing with the Asian Trekking Agency.
Under the guidance of expedition leader Dawa Stephen and with his Sherpa Chiring Pinjo Dai, Arjun became one of the youngest people in the world to have climbed the world’s highest mountain.
Standing on the summit of Everest, Arjun saw Lhotse nearby and immediately set his sights on this new challenge. The following year, on May 21, 2011, just one day before completing 365 days after his Everest expedition, he successfully climbed Lhotse, which he found to be technically more challenging than Everest.
Among all the mountains he has climbed, Makalu holds a special place in Arjun’s heart. He attempted this challenging peak every year from 2013 to 2016 before finally succeeding.
The experience shaped him as a mountaineer, teaching him toughness and resilience. He describes the final summit ridge of Makalu as “a stairway to heaven.”
Mountaineering at such extreme altitudes comes with life-threatening risks. In 2012, while attempting a double summit of Choyu and Shishapangma, Arjun was caught in severe weather on Choyu.
Trapped with his two Sherpas in high winds and heavy snow, he was left paralyzed on the left side of his body at Camp 2.
The expedition organization Trekking and his Sherpas helped save his life, but the paralysis persisted for about six months afterward. This experience humbled Arjun and taught him to respect the mountains even more deeply.
Besides his climbing achievements, Arjun is also an entrepreneur. His company, Climb Up Adventures, manufactures climbing walls for various institutions including the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, Indian Army, Indian Navy, Indian Air Force, and schools across India. Through this business, Arjun aims to bring the sport of climbing to every school in India, focusing on early childhood fitness alongside education.
Climb Up Adventures also runs residential programs that take students into the mountains to teach them survival skills like fire making, shelter building, river crossing, night sky navigation, and surviving in extreme environments. Arjun believes these experiences prepare children to help others in natural disasters rather than becoming helpless victims themselves.
To date, Arjun has undertaken 17 expeditions above 8,000 meters and successfully summited 8 of these peaks, making him the first Indian to climb 8 out of the 14 highest mountains in the world.
He calls this endeavor “Project 8K,” with the ultimate goal of becoming the first Indian to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks.
Throughout his journey, Arjun’s greatest inspiration has been his parents. They never let his weaknesses define him and supported his dreams when dreaming itself could be considered a luxury. They provided the discipline, patience, and love that shaped him into the person he is today.
To aspiring climbers, Arjun offers simple but profound advice be honest in your love for mountains, be a good person, get proper training, and practice responsible adventure.
He emphasizes the importance of raising awareness about melting glaciers and conserving mountains as our source of fresh drinking water. Most importantly, he encourages setting goals and continuing to climb “not only the mountains outside but the mountains within as well.”
