72 Hours In A Crevasse, CPR For 4 Hours, And He Lived To Tell The Tale

Anurag Maloo's attempt to scale Annapurna, the 10th highest mountain in the world, almost ended in tragedy. While rappelling down, the cord broke and he landed in a crevasse and hit his head. "What sustained me was the hope that they will come for me," he said of his team-mates, recounting the horrific event that took pace more than three years ago, on 17 April, 2023.

The team, he said, had turned back 150 m below the summit. Given the weather, and the low food supplies, the mission looked suicidal. The plan, he said, was to go down to camp 2, rest and recuperate.

But the descent was anything but easy. Between Camp 3 and camp 2 lay the most dangerous part of the route. It witnessed an avalanche every few weeks. 

There was no avalanche this time. What happened was as unexpected as it was shocking. "I was rappelling down when the rope vanished. It was broken," said Maloo. 

"It was 6000 meters high from the sea level. The temperature was minus 30 to minus 40 degrees Celsius. There was no food or water. Or cellphone to call for help, call my mother," he said at NDTV World's Anviksha summit. "Only hope stayed alive that someone would come and rescue me," he added.

It was Day 4 when help arrived. But they had given him up for dead, he said. The people who came to carry out the "body" kicked him. "Then my chest moved. They shone a torch in my eye and shouted, "He is alive".

But a similar mood of dejection pervaded in the hospital as well and Maloo's brother had to convince the doctors to keep the CPR (Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation) going. His family, he said, had never doubted that he would be found and revived. He opened his eyes after receiving CPP for exactly 4 hours and 5 minutes, he said. 

Today, he said he feels like a child of both India and Nepal. 

"I was born in India, and then was reborn from womb of Annapurna in Nepal. Both countries are my home," he added.