Nepal quake changed the way climbers view this sport

NOIDA: Twenty-one-year-old mountaineer Arjun Vajpai returned home on Tuesday, after he was rescued from the collapsing slopes of Mount Makalu in Nepal on Sunday, where he was stuck since the earthquake.
A relieved Arjun said the incident has changed the way mountaineers see the sport of mountain climbing. "Small avalanches are normal in mountaineering, but I had not expected what befell us," Arjun said about his third expedition to scale Makalu that began on April 11.He had failed to summit in two previous attempts in 2013 and 2014, by 100 m and 50 m respectively, due to bad weather and shortage of ropes.
"Huge avalanches rushed towards our base camp. The entire mountain appeared to be doing a jig in front of our eyes," he said.
It was April 25. Arjun and his fellow climbers were sitting in the Makalu advance base camp at 18,500 ft. "We first felt an unusual movement along the surface, and realized something was wrong. Shortly afterwards, the mountain swayed violently again, and we realized it was an earthquake," he said. It was followed by a clouded sky, lots of snowfall and avalanches. The situation deteriorated further when they lost contact with advance climbers. The satellite phone stopped working for an hour. At the base camp, the huddled group of climbers fervently recalled their families as if it was their last day.
"We saw avalanches 700 metres in length and 400 metres across approaching base camp. It was frightening," he said. But courage returned. When the sat-phone woke up after an hour, they contacted each other to confirm there was no causality. "Since the first quake, we slept for one hour at a stretch to keep vigil in case of further quakes or avalanches," he said.
The Indian embassy in Nepal swung into action and immediately contacted Nepal Army for their rescue. Twice, the Nepal Army tried and failed due to inclement weather and heavy snowfall. Finally at 2 am on Sunday, a Nepal Army MI-17 chopper rescued Arjun and 13 other climbers.
Even the rescue mission was fraught with danger, with the chopper unable to fly to the advance base camp and asked the climbers to descend. "We climbed down around 4,000 ft in two-and-a-half hours to catch the rescue 'copter," Arjun said. Routes were damaged and some climbers were injured in the process. Among the 13 rescued were five from Spain, three from Belgium, two from Austria and three Nepalese sherpas.
At Kathmandu, Arjun was taken to the Indian embassy. Finally on Tuesday, he flew to Chandigarh.
Back home in Noida, Arjun reflected on the horrific scenes he encountered, saying they have inflicted mental and emotional injuries on him that will be hard to forget. "But it has not dented my determination. I will attempt scaling Makalu again, this year or the next," he said.
Arjun's parents said they will continue to facilitate his passion. "As a mother, I want him to be with me. But we will not stop him from pursuing his passion, but help him in it," said Priya Vajpai, the relieved mother. Sitting next to her, father Captain Sanjiv Vajpai concurred.