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David
Keaton:
Ararat 2001 Peace Climb Member
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David
Keaton Joins International Peace Climb in Turkey |
Mountaineer and adventure photographer, David D.
Keaton of Carmel, California will join an international team on
the 'Ararat 2001 Peace Climb' in mid-July. The
group of climbers, all Everest summiteers drawn from
around the world, will climb the North side of Ararat,
an area that in modern history has only rarely been
opened to foreigners.
Two
climbers from a select few countries have been invited
to join the expedition. Conceived in the spirit of
international peace and cooperation, the climb of this
legendary holy mountain is meant to show that "we
all can get along."
The
expedition will also raise money for several
non-profit organizations including the AKUT Search and
Rescue Society of Turkey, the TEGEV educational
program of Turkey, and the Nepalese Babu Chiri Sherpa
School Fund. Babu Chiri, was the 10 time Everest
summiter who also held the speed ascent record of the
mountain. He died last May while climbing Mount
Everest in an effort to raise funds to build the first
school in his home village.
Keaton is honored to be lending his
support to the expedition and working to raise funds
for the two educational organizations as well as for
AKUT which has been instrumental in helping rescue
victims of the recent devastating earthquakes in
Turkey and India.
In
1995, Keaton, became the youngest person, at age 29,
to climb the highest peak on each of the seven
continents, the so-called 'Seven
Summits'.
Keaton will join Turkish-born, Nasuh Mahruki the
expedition's leader, who in 1997 supplanted Keaton
as the youngest 'Seven Summiter'. Keaton is the
fourteenth mountaineer in the world to have completed
both versions of the 'Seven Summits'. He is the only
person in the world to have climbed both the 'Seven
Summits' and all 50 of the U.S. state highpoints.
The
expedition will dispatch reports to www.holylandexpeditions.com
and to www.everestnews.com, the largest mountaineering web site in the world
covering international climbing news. Keaton, whose photographs and articles have appeared
in publications as diverse as Rock & Ice, Simon
& Schuster, and Business Week, will contribute to
the site during the expedition.
Exploring
remote areas of the world has become an avocation of
Keaton's in recent years. In 1998 he made a number of
new climbs in Tajikistan's Muzkol Pamir. Last
summer, he explored the Lindbergh Field mountains of
East Greenland, leading the first ascent of Jaetteborg
(c.3050 meters), one of the highest virgin peaks above
the Arctic Circle.
To
support this vision of peace, please make a donation, via
SHIVA charity. You can make a credit card donation by
clicking HERE.
For
more information on the Peace climb see here.
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