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Local man’s bid to conquer Everest

Wednesday, 20 February 2008

A Dún Laoghaire man will soon attempt to become the first Dubliner and the youngest ever Irish male to conquer Mount Everest. Graham Kinch (29) and his life long friend Ian Taylor from Leixlip in County Kildare will launch a bid to climb the highest mountain in the world at the end of March or the beginning of April, depending on weather conditions. Mount Everest is situated on the border between Nepal, Tibet and China and is 8,848 metres high. If either Mr Kinch or Mr Taylor were to reach the summit they would become the youngest Irishmen to scale the highest point on the planet. They will attempt to scale the southern side of the mountain, which is generally accepted to be marginally less difficult to climb than the northern side. Youngest The youngest Irish man ever to climb Mount Everest was 31-year-old Kerryman Ger McDonald who achieved the feat in 2003 but the youngest Irish person ever to conquer the mountain was Cork woman Samantha Carroll, who was just 28 years of age when she reached the summit in 2004. The pair have joined forces with the Irish charity ‘Fields of Life’ having set themselves the goal of climbing four mountains on four continents in one year in an attempt to raise the money needed to build a school in a Ugandan village. Both Graham and Ian have already climbed Mount Blanc in France, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Aconcagua in Argentina as part of the  year long project, which began in June 2007 and runs until June 2008. The climbers are now in the middle of their peak training phase before flying out to the Nepalese capital city, Kathmandu, next month. Graham said their extensive preparations for the climb include personal fitness training, physiotherapist sessions, mountain skills training, technical rock climbing and rope training, technical mountain training and first aid and wilderness medicine training. Describing the kind of conditions he could face on the climb, he said: “Big lumps of ice the size of a houses can fall at any time. We need to be prepared for the weather conditions to get down to minus 40 or 50 degrees. “We were just in Argentina in the first two weeks in January climbing Aconcagua and we eventually experienced wind chill of about minus 40 degrees and wind speeds of over 100 mph. That is a much smaller mountain than Everest so you can only imagine what that will be like on a mountain two kilometers higher.” However, despite the daunting expedition, Graham said they were both confident about completing the task. “We have climbed all around Ireland and in the UK and feel we have a great chance of climbing Everest,” he declared. While in East Africa in September Ian and Graham visited the village of Kitandwe. They hope to raise enough money to build a school there by collecting e1 for every foot climbed, totalling the €85,000 needed for the project. Describing the visit Graham said: “It was such an amazing experience to meet the villagers and understand their vision for the area. In Ireland we have been so lucky with the education system we have enjoyed. Ian and I feel that education is the key to ongoing community development and so we are very excited about this project.” The Fields of Life charity was set up in 1995 with their main focus on providing education to those most in need. Since then the charity has built over 60 schools in the East African countries of Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi and Congo where over 20,000 children now attend. Fields of Life work in tandem with the relevant governments and local communities to identify areas that are most in need of additional school facilities and provide the capital funding for these projects. Ravaged Uganda, like many sub Saharan African countries, is a country that has been ravaged by AIDS and poverty. The average age of death is 39.5 and 17 per cent of the population is HIV positive. Just 38 per cent of children complete primary school and only 13 per cent enroll in secondary school. The annual average wage in the country is a paltry €1,300 per capita. Anyone who wishes to donate to the project may do so using their credit card by logging onto www.everest 2008.ie Funds can also be transferred to account number 42792240, sort code 93-33-92 or you can send a cheque made payable to Fields of Life, No 2 Account, to Everest Project, Fields of Life, Tree Tops, Brides Glen Road Shankill, Dublin 18.