Everest Diaries #17 - How I Escaped A Sure Death (Descending From The Summit Of Everest)

Hello to everyone on Steemit! I summited Mount Everest on 22nd of May 2010 at 6:18am, becoming the youngest person in the world to do so! In my previous blog I descended to Camp 4 after summiting Everest. We started at 10pm the previous night and we climbed throughout the night in the death zone. It was around 10am and we had inched our way back to Camp 4 at 8000m in a very tiring condition.

I had read a lot about the ill-effects of extreme high altitude on a human body and I sure wasn’t willing to spend another night up here at Camp 4 in the death zone so me and my Sherpa decided to head down to Camp 3 (7300m). I wanted to go even further down to Camp 2 (6500m) for the day but we decided to hit Camp 3 first and then decide. Little did I know that this decision would change my life forever!

We started heading down from Camp 4 at around 11am. Between Camp 4 and Camp 2 stood the huge Lhotse face with Camp 3 located on the face itself. We rappelled down inch by inch through the Geneva Spur and Yellow Band sections on Lhotse face. I was feeling very tired and lethargic now; after all we had been climbing for 16 hours non-stop now. We reached Camp 3 at 1pm. I still wanted to head down even though my Sherpa insisted that we stay back. He was quite tired as well but I convinced him that we should head down. He was not very pleased with the decision so I told him he can head down at his pace and he doesn’t have to wait for me. I knew the route well by now. He took his rucksack and headed down. I started 15 minutes after him. I clipped on to the rope and started rappelling down.

It was getting really hot and I was out of water. My body was getting weaker by the minute, my mind was not thinking clearly, my body was just going through the motions without thinking much and that is always dangerous. As the rope is attached to the slope after every 100 feet, one has to clip out and clip in again below the anchor point to continue. Half way down the Lhotse face, I suddenly realized that the rope below me was ending after 20 more feet. I looked around, completely confused. How is the rope ending? Did someone cut it off? How was my Sherpa able to head down then? I had so many questions but my mind was not able to understand the situation completely. I soon realized, I had done the classic climbers mistake. During one of those anchor changes, I took a wrong rope probably from a previous expedition and went on a completely different track and now the rope was ending below me.

It was impossible for me to climb up this huge slope which has an inclination of 65 to 70 degree and is full of hard blue ice. I looked below my feet; there was a huge crevasse few hundred feet below me which was so deep that its bottom was not visible. I knew if I fell, there was no coming back. No one will ever know where Arjun Vajpai disappeared. I tried to pull myself up but I was too exhausted by now. I closed my eyes and accepted the fact that there is no one around to help me out and I was going to die today. My hands were also losing grip slowly. I started crying. Not to sound very dramatic but my life flashed in front of my eyes. In that moment, I just wanted to go home for just one more minute and tell my parents how much I love them. Just one more minute is what I needed!

I remember this particular incident that happened with me just before I left for the expedition from home. My mom gave a Hanuman Chalisa (A holy book) and told me to keep it in my bag at all times! I told her ‘Mom I am going to climb Mount Everest, when will I have time to read this?’ But I kept it in my bag anyways. I suddenly remembered that the book is still in my bag. I touched my bag and prayed to God that if you exist, save me today!

My hands were giving away now. And suddenly this thought pops in my mind that I always wanted to sing the song ‘summer of 69’ by Bryan Adams in front of a huge audience. I started singing the song on top of my lungs with the mountains as my audience. Well, it was a mixture of crying and singing. I had decided that after I am done singing the song, I will let go off the rope and end everything!

Half way through the song I thought I heard someone calling my name but I did not take the effort of looking up; subconsciously I knew there wasn’t going to be anyone, but I heard the call again and then again; I looked up and to my disbelief there was someone coming down! YES! I screamed HELP! He asked me ‘why the hell are you singing summer of 69?’ He must have thought that I have gone crazy. He came near me; he was a Sherpa who had decided to come down to Camp 2 because he had a fight with his client up at Camp4. It was destiny! I told him I am stuck here. ‘Don’t you have a jumar?’ he asked. I suddenly realized that I had a device attached right on my harness which could have gotten me out of this situation a long time ago but my mind wasn’t thinking! I quickly attached my jumar on the rope and started ascending towards the right track.

That Sherpa was God sent. If he had not showed up in time, I would be resting in the valleys of Everest for eternity. I owe my life to him. Those few minutes hanging on the rope when I had practically accepted my death, I learned some really crude life lessons. After I got back home to my family, I realized how precious these moments are and how easily all of this could vanish in the blink of an eye.

PS- I do not have any images from that day, sorry!