Mom, I am safe: Indian mountaineer stranded at Mount Makalu in Nepal

On Saturday afternoon, when tremors were felt in the NCR and everybody was busy discussing about the earthquake — a lot of them tweeting and updating their FB status — Noida boy and mountaineer Arjun Vajpai, was stuck at Mount Makalu in Nepal with other mountaineers. Arjun, who had successfully scaled the mighty Mt Everest at the age of 16, is currently in Nepal for an expedition with fellow climbers.
His whereabouts certainly caused panic among his family and friends. When the earthquake hit on Saturday, he was quick to call his mother to inform about his safety. He has also been posting selfie videos on his FB page to inform everybody about the situation.
Indian mountaineer’s videos of being stuck in Nepal go viral
His mother, Priya Vajpai told us, “I panic way too quickly, and Arjun knows that. So, he called me to tell that he, as well as other mountaineers, were safe. He asked me, ‘Mom, where is the epicentre?’ I checked it on news channels, and when he called me after some time, I informed him that it was in Nepal. He didn’t sound very perturbed about that.” His mother was happy to note a sense of assurance in his voice. “I got a call from him on Sunday morning as well. I am glad all of them are safe. They will all return safely, I know,”she added.
But the mountaineers are yet to decide whether they should continue their expedition or take a safe route back home.
“For now, they are stranded. They will take a call after two-three days, when the weather will hopefully clear up,” Priya said.
Meanwhile, the selfie videos that Arjun has been uploading, which give a peek into the situation at the base camp, have gone viral. The first of the two videos was shared by more than 800 people and has already got over one lakh views. In the video, he says, “We have had a lot of disturbances here due to the earthquake, which was reported in Nepal. We have quite a few avalanches coming down those mountains (while pointing at one) and had quite a bit of rockfall. Most of our team members are okay. Well, some of our members just moved to camp one and camp two. I hope all is well up there.”
Arjun, now 21, started to scale Mt Makalu, which is the fifth highest mountain in the world on April 8. He tried to scale Makalu in 2013 and last year too. But he had to come back after scaling only 100 metres because of the bad weather and shortage of ropes. This year too, the weather is not in his favour. In another video shared after the tremors on Sunday, he said, “We just felt some fresh tremors today. Big pieces of ice fell from the glacier. It seems a little scary. The weather doesn’t seem to be getting any better here. It started snowing again. In the morning, we got a little sunshine and were able to establish connection with the people up on the mountain. Now, everybody is down. Nobody is up on the mountain. Everybody is safe.”
In his third video uploaded on Monday evening, Arjun said, “I am trying to keep you guys updated about the situation in this valley. We have felt a couple of tremors here last night (Sunday) but no serious damage has been done. I would like to confirm that there are zero casualties as of now in the Makalu valley. We are going to decide by the 30th whether to continue our mission and climb the mountain or not. So, we have to stay put. We are safe here, a couple of climbers are still in shock because of the tremors.”