Northland Briefs

DULUTH

Mountain climber to present flag

The first lower-leg amputee to climb the world's highest mountain will present the Minnesota flag he carried to the owners of a new Duluth medical business Tuesday.

Nawang Sherpa will present the flag during an open house at Northern Orthotic & Prosthetic Center, 925 E. Superior St. The open house is 2-6 p.m., with a ribbon cutting at 3 p.m.

Nawang, who lost his lower left leg in a 2000 motorcycle accident, reached the summit of 29,035-foot-tall Mount Everest on May 16, using an artificial leg supplied by the Two Harbors-based High Exposure Foundation.

High Exposure was launched by the late climber Ed Hommer of Duluth, a double amputee who championed access tosophisticated prosthetics to enable amputees to lead active lives. Hommer and Nawang planned to scale Everest together, but Hommer died while training on a Washington mountain in 2002. Northern Orthotic & Prosthetic Center co-owner Tom Halvorson worked with Nawang during two visits to Duluth before last spring's climb.