Mt Annapurna expedition | Rescued climber back: Were exhausted, no proper arrangements

The four other three rescued climbers are Shehroze Kashif and Naila Kiani from Pakistan, Baljeet Kaur from Himachal Pradesh and Arjun Vajpai from Rajasthan. Maloo was found alive in a deep crevasse on the mountain Thursday.

All of them were part of separate expeditions to scale the 8,091-metre mountain.

Speaking to The Indian Express over phone, Vajpai said his team, which included Kashif, Kiani and Hanna, reached the summit on the morning of April 17. It was the descent that proved more tough, Vajpai said.

Vajpai said when his team reached Camp-4 around 10.30am, the climbers were “exhausted”. “To make matters worse, there were no adequate arrangements, so we were airlifted to the base camp on April 18. By that time Noel Hanna had died,” he said.

Vajpai said he later got to know Kaur was also found alive and had been brought to the same hospital. He said he spoke to Kaur and that she was recovering well. “I had a few words with her. She is in high spirits,” he said.

When asked what had caused the extreme exhaustion, Vajpai, who said he climbed Mt Everest at the age of 16, attributed it to “High Altitude Cerebral Edema”, a common condition faced by mountaineers at high altitudes. Vajpai also said Kaur had attempted to reach the summit without oxygen.

“It was my third attempt. My first attempt was in 2019 without oxygen which I could not make. In 2022, I again attempted Mt Annapurna but had to return from a 150-metre distance. This time I completed the summit,” he said.