Indian climber Anurag Maloo, who went missing on Monday after falling into a deep crevasse on Nepal's Mount Annapurna, was found alive on Nepal's Mount Annapurna on Thursday. His brother said Maloo was found by rescuers in critical condition and underwent treatment.
Maloo, 34, a resident of Kishangarh in Rajasthan, went missing on Monday after he fell from around 6,000 metres while descending from Camp III. Mount Annapurna is the 10th highest mountain in the world.
"He is found alive. He has been taken to the hospital in critical condition, but he is still alive," Sudhir, his brother said. "We will have to shift our focus towards the medical side now," he added.
Maloo is on a mission to climb all 14 peaks above 8,000 metres and the seven highest points in all seven continents to create awareness and drive action towards achieving the UN Global Goals.
He has been awarded REX Karam- Veer Chakra and became the 2041 Antarctic Youth Ambassador from India.
An extensive search operation was conducted to trace Maloo. A team of five sherpa climbers were carried out a ground search for the missing climber, Chhang Dawa Sherpa, the expedition director at Seven Summit Treks.
The expedition organiser added that an aerial search was also conducted on Tuesday to trace the Indian climber.
Maloo was on a mission to climb all 14 peaks above 8,000 metres and the seven highest points in all seven continents to create awareness and drive action towards achieving the UN Global Goals.
Earlier, Maloo's brother Aashish had sought help from the governments of Nepal and India in finding his brother. Aashish posted the request for help on change.org, addressed to India's Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Two other Indian mountaineers - Baljeet Kaur and Arjun Vajpayee - were rescued from Mt Annapurna in Nepal on Tuesday.
Kaur, 27, who scaled the world's 10th highest peak without using supplemental oxygen, went missing near Camp IV while descending from the summit point on Monday and was rescued from 7,363m after an aerial search team located her above Camp IV.
In May last year, Kaur, from Himachal Pradesh, scaled Mt Lhotse and became the first Indian climber to have climbed four 8000-meter peaks in a single season.
Vajpayee, 29, was also rescued from 6,800 metres, and admitted for treatment to Hams Hospital after being airlifted to Kathmandu.
He was awarded by Guinness World Records in 2022 for becoming the youngest person to climb two higher 8000ers (Mt. Everest in 2010 and Summit Lhotse in May 2011).
He has already scaled Mt. Everest, Mt. Lhotse, Mt. Makalu, Mt.Kangchenjunga, Mt. Manaslu, and Cho-Oyu, making several mountaineering world records.
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