Within the last couple weeks, Scott Parazynski became the first astronaut to summit Mount Everest — with moon rocks in tow!
Check out pictures, video and more from Scott’s Everest adventure on Onorbit.com
Sir Ranulph Fiennes has conquered Mount Everest in support of Marie Curie Cancer Care, a year after he was forced to abandon an attempt on the mountain.
The world-famous explorer reached the summit shortly before 1 am on 21 May 2009, despite having previously declared “no more mountains”.
He’s not stopping there – his mission now is to smash the £3 million target he set last year to support Marie Curie Nurses, giving more terminally ill patients the choice to die at home, surrounded by their families.
He was moved to support Marie Curie Cancer Care after he lost his mother, wife and two sisters, the latter three to cancer, all within an 18-month period.
At 65, Sir Ranulph is the oldest Briton to summit Everest, and the first explorer in history to reach the world’s highest peak and the most Northerly and Southerly points on the planet.
Korean alpinist, Park young Seok, has summited Everest from the rarely climbed southwest side. Park Young Seok is only the third alpinist to open a route on this side of the mountain since a British and a Russian team climbed the route over 20 years ago.
In other news, British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes has reached the summit of Everest on his third attempt to becoming the oldest Briton and the first British pensioner. Joking about his advanced age, which in Britain brings free travel on some public transport, Fiennes was quoted by BBC as saying, “It’s amazing where you can get with a bus pass these days.” Fiennes was the first explorer to complete a tour of the world on foot and then sailed between the two poles in 1982 before crossing Antarctica on foot with his long time adventuring partner Michael Stround in 1993.
Font: Outdoor Australia Magazine – july/aug 2009
Ed Wardle prepares for the summit push
By Ed Wardle
I reached the summit of Everest via the South Col at 4:15 a.m. on May 20, 2009. It wasn’t what I expected.
Fear is a very real issue for people attempting to climb Everest. “I’m having second thoughts, serious second thoughts!” said one team member two days before the summit push. The next day he booked a helicopter out of Base Camp and flew home to his family.
Another climber, who is planning to get married next month, watched in horror as an avalanche engulfed the Khumbu Icefall and decided to return to his fiancée without trying for the summit. For weeks before anyone goes for “the top,” Base Camp doctors see Everest climbers with psychosomatic symptoms they can only diagnose as relating to fear. They gently tell climbers that they are allowed to go home.
Posted using ShareThis
Rescued climber tells of watching his brother fall to death
Published December 15, 2008 News Leave a CommentAn Australian climber who was rescued after two days stranded on Aoraki-Mount Cook is preparing to be reunited with his family in Perth.
Miles Vinar has described how he saw his brother fall to his death, and how he thought he would perish himself.
Mark Vinar, a doctor from Perth, slipped and fell down a crevice on Thursday. Miles, who was by his side when he fell, says he stumbled down around 20 metres before falling over the edge. Miles then followed his brother’s path down the slope. “My hopes were that he’d just fallen a couple of meters and had disappeared down there,” he said. But when he saw his brother’s body he realized there was no chance of survival.
Miles survived on a tiny amount of water, salami and chocolate bars and built a snow cave that was almost wiped out in an avalanche. “I was expecting to die that night,” he told reporters. “The continual flood of snow coming down the face, it was a continual battle just to keep clearing it – every time you clear it you get hit again”.
A guide spotted the climbers torch on Wednesday.
Miles says he was worried that no-one would know they were missing after the brothers forgot to register their climb. He will be reunited with his family in Perth tomorrow. His brother’s body will remain where he fell.
One of two Australian climbers missing on Aoraki/Mt Cook has been found uninjured and rescued.
The man was seen coming down the mountain about 6am, Constable Les Andrew told NZPA. He was picked up by a helicopter and flown to Plateau Hut. Police were this morning interviewing him to find out where his partner was, Mr Andrew said.
The two middle-aged men were flown to Plateau Hut last Saturday with plans to climb the mountain via Zurbriggens route at 1am on Wednesday. Other climbers saw their lights at 11.30pm on Wednesday night, high up on the ridge, but they had not been seen since and the weather had been unsettled.
Earlier this month two Japanese climbers were stranded on the mountain for a week. Climbing guide Kiyoshi Ikenouchi died, while his friend and climbing companion Hideaki Nara was rescued.
Two Australian climbers are missing on Aoraki-Mount Cook in the Southern Alps
Published December 12, 2008 News Leave a CommentThe middle-aged men were flown into Plateau Hut on Saturday 6 December and set out to climb Aoraki-Mount Cook via the Zurbriggens route at 1am on Wednesday.
Their lights were seen by other climbers at 11.30pm on Wednesday night, high up on the ridge, but they have not been seen since and have not returned to their hut.
Police say the weather since Wednesday has been unsettled and there is between 25cm and 30cm of new snow at Plateau Hut.
Department of Conservation rescue staff and police have been waiting for a clearance in the weather, before starting an aerial search for the missing pair.
The search was suspended on Friday night and would resume on Saturday.
It comes a week after a Japanese climber was rescued on the same mountain after being trapped by bad weather.
His climbing guide died of exposure before rescuers could reach the men.
A New Zealand search and rescue helicopter team has found six missing Australian climbers on Mount Cook. They were reached this morning and taken by helicopter to the Mount Cook base for medical assessments. There is no word yet on their condition.
The climbers activated an emergency beacon on Thursday night, but bad weather and an avalanche risk hampered efforts to find them. Crystal Macmillan from the Rescue Coordination Centre in Wellington says the climbers were rescued during a short break in bad weather. “There was a brief window in the weather this morning and a helicopter was able to go directly to the location where the beacon was set off from and find the missing party of Australian climbers, and they’ve been picked up and they’ve been returned to Mt Cook village base,” she said. Ross Henderson, also from Rescue Coordination Centre, says it was only this morning they were able to confirm it was indeed the Australians who’d activated the beacon. “The difficulty was because the type of beacon they were using was an older variety of beacon, it didn’t give us any information about who had activated it,” he said. “So it was difficult for us to know if it was them – that is an area that is popular with a number of climbers. What we did know was that the Australian group were in the area but it could easily have been another group.”
Font: ABC News
If you are hoping to one-day experience Everest or other alpine giants yourself, the time time to begin is now. There are many opinions on age. You can’t do this, you shouldn’t do that. At 16 you are too young, at 60 you are too old, in between you should act as an adult. So when IS your time? The way I see it, we are OK for anything – at anytime!
Medical research shows that the average male physical peak performance is in his late twenties, female in mid-thirties. This is – if you don’t do anything about it. Because research also proves that people caring for their bodies with proper lifestyle, nutrition and training, maintain near peak performance levels throughout their entire lives!
I started climbing at 32 and aim to summit Everest until 45. I’ve been training Aikido with a man about 70 years old and strong as bear. If you think that you are too old for everything at 37 – think again.
It’s never too late, you can accomplish everything you want – as long as you put some work into it. Of course you could still die at 50. But by then you will have lived at your very best to the end. And filled your life to the brim similar of a 100-year old!
So no matter how old you are – if you dream to climb Everest, the time is now. The oldest Everest-climber we have met has 77 years! A Nepali man called Min Bahadur Sherchan reached the summit in 25th May 2008. He looked forty and acted forty.
No excuses. Just do it.
I read about a man, that made it to the summit.
And standing there, at the top of the world
He experienced a profound silence…
It was like all sounds just fell away.
And that’s when he heard it:
the sound of the mountain.
He said, it was like he heard the voice of God.
Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List
