Noida, Mar 25 (IANS): Sixteen-year-old Noida student Arjun Vajpayee has set his sights on the world's highest peak Mount Everest and will leave for Nepal Thursday.

"He will be leaving for Kathmandu Thursday morning. After staying there for two days to purchase the expedition equipment, Arjun would climb up the Island Peak (21,000 feet)," his father Captain Sanjeev Vajpayee, a Sector-51 resident, said.

Mount Everest is 29,035 feet above the sea level.

"On April 7, he would summit the Everest Base Camp. On April 11, he would climb down and then be on the expedition again for the next 40 days. After reaching Camp 1, Camp 2 and South Camp, he is expected to be at Mount Everest around the third week of May or maximum by fourth week, depending upon the weather conditions," Sanjeev said.

Arjun is accompanied by a 12-member team, nine of whom are from US, Denmark, Switzerland and Australia while the remaining three are Indians. The team will be led by Apa Sherpa who has scaled the summit a record 19 times.

If he successfully climbs Everest, Arjun Vajpai would be the youngest Indian to scale the highest peak.

Earlier in 2009, Krushnaa Patil, 18, from Maharashtra earned the distinction of becoming the youngest Indian to reach the highest peak.

Arjun, a Class 12 student of Ryan International School, completed a basic course in mountaineering from Nehru Institute of Mountaineering at Uttarkashi where he climbed 19,000 feet.