Shane Geoghegan Trust to benefit
A LIMERICK man will aim to break records and climb Everest while he attempts to raise funds for the Shane Geoghegan Trust and become the youngest Irish person, at 26, to climb the world’s highest peak.
Mark Quinn has reported from his record breaking attempt where the climber has been based in Katmandu.
With initial delays now overcome, this week the 26-year-old has now moved to Everest Base camp where he would be familiarising himself with his surroundings and his climbing team. Mark noted that the “group is made up of Americans, British and Aussies predominantly, and a German and myself thrown in for good measure”.
He described them as “quite a cumbersome group at the moment, but in the coming days we’ll drift off in our separate directions,” as they go over “gear and paperwork”.
Red tape and wranglings even dog the most remote of places on this earth, and the top of the world is no different as Mark adds that “owing to delays caused by the Chinese government and the Tibet MCA, no climbers were able to obtain permits until April 4”.
Thankfully, that has rectified itself and Mark is amongst a group of climbers that have been granted their permit visas.
The Rhebogue man has spent the last few months making the final preparations for the climb, as well as testing survival courses in some of the toughest regions in Europe.
As an experienced climber, 2010 saw Mark hit the top of Mt Aconcagua in the Argentinean Andes at 6,962m above sea level, the highest point in the world outside of Asia.
Because of delays the group were forced to make a trip to the Namche Bazaar, the Sherpa home city, but they used it as conditioning to make it to Base Camp in “double quick time” adds the Limerick man.
“We’ve all succeeded so far at making it through our time at Kathmandu without getting sick, which is the primary goal here”.
Mark is amongst some record breakers as he says that “there are some interesting characters on the team, one hopes to be the first Cornish person to summit and a guy who arrived this morning has completed the marathon grand slam and Everest will be his sixth of the seven summits”.
It all comes down to basics now as Mark closes with “reports are good regarding the facilities at base camp; we should have our own Internet connection and charging facilities.
“But as they keep telling us-expect things do go wrong”.
The Limerickman, together with his team of climbers, will make Everest base camp their home prior to their accent of the world’s highest peak in the coming weeks.
Mark is climbing to raise funds for the Shane Geoghegan Trust which is a Limerick based charity that raises funds to give an alternative to anti social behaviour to the youth of the region.
