Visakhapatnam: When Anmish Varma (25), a Vizagite, made his first attempt to scale the world’s highest peak Mount Everest, little did he know what was in store for him. When he was close to reaching his goal he was faced with a choice between going ahead and saving a life. And Varma chose the latter. The young mountaineer, however, has no regrets. He says, he can always try and scale the Everest again, but there are no second chances when it is a question of life and death.Varma, along with his team, started their trek from the Everest base camp with an aim to climb the peak and it took a span of 30 days to reach a height of 7,900 meters. In another day, Varma would have reached the summit of the 8,848-metre.But, soon after, Varma dropped out from his team after he heard that a mountaineer Rambabu (21), who had reached 8,300 meters, has taken ill and was in a critical condition. Sherpas struggled to communicate about his condition, but language became a barrier. Varma then decided to accompany Rambabu for his immediate treatment.After he was brought down to a lower base camp, Varma saw the critical condition of Rambabu and learnt that he belonged to Paderu mandal of Visakhapatnam district. Rambabu had severe headache and was disoriented, said Varma.“Although others decided to complete the journey, I decided to be with Rambabu while the arrangement for a chopper was going on. We reached a hospital in Nepal in a chopper after a 5-hour car journey from the China border to the Nepal border. On reaching the hospital, doctors said that there was a blood clot in the left side of his brain and he has to go under the knife, ” said the mountaineer.Varma, who is an international kickboxer and a karate champion, added, “The treatment took around one month and I am happy that both of us have safely returned to India. The Indian embassy in Nepal was supportive during our stay in Nepal.”Hailing from a poor family, Varma was selected by the department of youth services to participate in the Everest expedition. The mission aimed to encourage youth from poor background to take up adventure activities and develop adventure sports in India.When asked about his training, Anmish said, “I underwent rigorous training for more than six months before the expedition. While I did the basic mountaineering course from the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (Darjeeling), the advance mountaineering course was completed from the Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering and Winter Sports (Jammu and Kashmir). The selected students underwent training in ice climbing, trekking, height training and other activities in Ladakh.”“I used to run for a distance of more than 15 kms a day with a load of 20 kgs during my training period. However, I still believe that my hard work will pay off one day and I am proud to save a life during my first summit,” Varma said.

Stay updated with all the Latest Visakhapatnam headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.