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A few hours after Arjun’s feat,13-year-old American Jordan Romero stood on the peak,becoming the youngest person ever to scale the Everest. Though Arjun missed meeting Romero,he says that he,too,celebrated when the news came in. “He must have trained hard. On the mountains,there is no competition so I was happy for him.”

Arjun will return to Delhi next week,and his family in Noida and his school,Ryan International—where he’s studied since Montessori — have planned a hero’s welcome. But the Class XII student,who climbed from the Nepal route,doesn’t feel like a conqueror: “The first thing that a mountaineer learns is to respect the mountain goddess. The Everest decides who goes up and who goes down. On the snowy slopes,even climbers who have no faith in Indian or Nepali mythology start believing.”

He recounts how he almost lost his life when his oxygen mask froze as he climbed an 80 degree steep wall from Camp 3 to Camp 4. “The oxygen flow dropped and I could neither take off the mask nor operate the regulator. It was snowing so heavily that my team could not see me. Unable to speak,I felt a dizzy heaviness settle over me.” He owes his life to sherpa Shringo Phingo who revived him by pouring hot water on him.

But by the time he reached Camp 4,where climbers generally begin to lose their appetite and energy,Arjun was gearing to go. “I was hogging like a pig. I had no problems with altitude and I was sure that I was going to make it to the top. In fact,I wanted to run for it.”

His mother Priya Vajpai says Arjun,a district-level basketball player and keen footballer,was always restless for instant success. “Now she can say that the Everest taught me patience,” says the teenager. “One has to wait for the right time,place and a suitable weather. I had a tough time holding my eagerness.”

The son of a retired army officer,Arjun caught the climbing bug during treks with his uncle. Three years ago,he enrolled with the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi. His teachers began to notice a change in him. “From a mischievous boy,he became disciplined and confident,” says principal Anuradha Sharma.

After climbing a few peaks like the Draupadi ka Danda,he decided to take on the Everest. “We needed Rs 30 lakh for this. In the absence of corporate or government funding,we relied on NGOs,family and friends to raise the money,” says Priya. Meanwhile,Arjun’s planning his own celebration in Delhi — spending time sampling street-food with his friends. After that,he will start planning how to climb the highest peaks in each of the seven continents.