| In
fact after all that Andy Salter, Gavin's partner
throughout the year, was the one who took the title.
He had failed on Aconcagua back in January 2001 and
then got his own sponsorship for Vinson to go in
December on a slightly earlier trip than Gavin. He
summitted and on the way back stopped off to try
Aconcagua again. Another miss but Andy went back for
a third time in January and this time summitted the
highest mountain in south America and thus became
the fastest person to climb the Seven Summits (counting Carstenz Pyramid, not the 7 months that Rob
Hall did it in which included Kosciuszko ).
"I
was understandably annoyed at missing the top of
Everest," says Gavin now, "and it was
natural to want to go back and try again. The
opportunity came quicker than I thought when I met
Steve Pinfield in Antarctica and Will Canning who I
had climbed with on Denali." Together they
decided to go back to Everest.
This
time though Gavin will be climbing the North ridge
and without supplementary oxygen or Sherpa support.
"A couple of years ago we climbed Cho Oyu like
that and I summitted without any problem with
altitude or exhaustion. Everest is a much bigger
proposition of course, 1500' higher, but I quite
fancy tackling it in a more natural way. We want to
be lightweight, small, maneuverable and
flexible."
Gavin
will be arriving in Kathmandu on the 25th March with
Will and Steve and staying at the Kathmandu Guest
House Hotel. They leave for Tibet on the 1st April.
"I'm very excited", says Gavin, "it
will be a great challenge and if luck is with us and
we stay healthy then we might have a crack at the
summit."
Throughout
their time on the mountain Gavin will be providing
reports for EverestNews.com and for very good
reason. "When we were on Everest in 2000 I had
this website and emailing list that I wrote for
every day. By the time we came to summit, over three
thousand people were logging on every day and I got
some incredible messages from people I never knew.
It was wonderful to think that our small adventures
up on that mountain were being followed by so many,
and that's something I'll never forget. People like
to know what's going on up there, what people are
doing. With the technology today, there's no reason
why we shouldn't keep in touch".
There's
another good reason for bringing the satellite phone
back again. This time Gavin has a dream to call a
certain special person from the top. "It gives
me added motivation to think that I could possibly
call somebody from the top of the world and tell
her...".
Now
what would be telling, eh ? |
