KATHMANDU - An American climber, Eric Weihanmayer, has become the first blind person to reach the summit of Everest.
He and 20 others in his team, including eight Sherpas, had spent weeks on the side of the mountain waiting for a break in the weather.
In the past few days the
clouds that had dumped snow on the mountain lifted, the weather was reported windy but clear, and the team made a break for the summit yesterday.
The first member of his team reached the top at 7.30am local time (1.30pm NZT).
The American adventurer, who is also a marathon runner, long-distance biker and acrobatic skydiver, reached the 8,848m peak with eight other Americans and three Sherpas.
On Thursday night, at 8,000m, Mr Weihanmayer spoke to President George Bush by satellite phone. The President wished him a safe and successful climb.
Another Everest record was broken this week when a Nepali schoolboy called Temba Tsheri Sherpa, just turned 16, became the youngest person to reach the top.
An eighth-grade student at school in Kathmandu, Temba Sherpa first tried Everest last year, aged 14.
But Everest News.com, a mountaineering website, declared: "Kids should not be climbing these peaks. It is just plain wrong."
They said "at least 591 deaths have resulted on 800-metre peaks ... fewer than 3,000 people on Earth have reached the summit of an 8,000-metre peak, with more than 600 deaths trying... It is not a sport for kids."
Their view seemed vindicated when Temba Sherpa tried in May 2000. Later he turned up at a hospital in Kathmandu, having lost parts of five fingers from frostbite.
But this week, Temba achieved his goal.
- INDEPENDENT
