The adventure bug bit Ajeet Bajaj at a young age. While he was still studying in St Lawrence School in Sanawar, his father signed him up for mountain climbing courses, and opened up new vistas for young Bajaj, for whom adventure would become a livelihood.
During one of his hiking trips across the Himalayas, Bajaj spotted a majestic snow leopard. The exhilarating experience made him want to share it with others. So, a couple of decades down the line, Snow Leopard Adventures was born in 1990 – a tour company that would widen the scope of adventure tourism from a handful of enthusiasts to the masses at large. The company became the first one to get the stamp of an ISO: 9000 Certified Company in the field of adventure tourism and received the National Tourism Award (2013-14). Bajaj himself got the Hall of Fame award from the Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI) and was felicitated with a Padma Shri award in 2012.
Restless feet and a wild sense of adventure seem to drive this wandering soul, as there is no stone he has left unturned, be it kayaking down the Zambezi, Amazon and Colorado rivers, becoming the first person to ski to both the North and South Pole in the same year, kayaking through the narrow, frozen creeks of Greenland or bagging bronze and silver medals at international kayaking competitions.
Adventure runs in the Bajaj blood. Ajieet’s daughter Deeya Bajaj joined him to conquer the biggest hurdle of them all – Mount Everest. And on May 16 this year, they became the first father-daughter duo to summit the mountain.
Getting asked to be a part of bureaus on travel and adventure is just par for the course for this explorer, and he has been a member of the Royal Geographic Society, a fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and a two-time president of the ATOAI. Nature and conservation are just as important to Bajaj, however, and one of the pillars of Snow Leapord Adventures remains sustainability.
We wish him many more adventures to come!
