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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Once
Is Not Enough: Second Record-Breaking Himalayan
Ascent Planned by Sherpa Climber-Amputee
and San Francisco Bay Area Friend
San
Rafael, California ― January 20, 2006
As
the team basked in the surprisingly clear, calm and mild weather on
the Top of the World, it was obvious that all the prayers for success
and blessings the team had sought prior to their Everest attempt were
being answered with huge affirmation by the mountain and weather deities.
The views from the summit were as dramatic, far-reaching, and inspiring
as the reasons the team had for getting there together. Nawang’s lifelong
goal to climb Mount Everest, despite a see-saw chain of great opportunities
and terrible tragedies, had been achieved thanks to his San Francisco
Bay Area climbing partner Tom McMillan and the Friendship Beyond Borders
Expedition. But
inspiring amputees and others around the world by scaling a huge Himalayan
peak once is not enough for Nawang and Tom. They now plan to scale another
one this spring—the world’s 6th-highest peak, Cho Oyu (8,201m; 26,906ft). The 2006 Friendship Beyond
Borders team will include Colorado mountaineer Pete Lardy, who in 2003
climbed Mustagh Ata (7546m; 24,750ft) in western China with
Tom to prepare for Everest. Guiding them again will be their friend
Nima Gombu Sherpa, a 10 times Everest summiter. Another member of this year’s
team will be Nawang’s movie-star-handsome younger brother, Ang Dawa
Sherpa. Having completed his high-altitude mountaineering training last
year, this will be Ang Dawa’s first opportunity to join a Himalayan
expedition as an aspiring Climbing Guide. Nawang
Sherpa’s left leg was crushed six years ago in a motorcycle accident
in Nepal. A year later, a group of his American friends drew together
a network of people willing to provide him with donations of high-quality
prosthetic care and equipment from clinics in California and Minnesota.
A
chance to climb Mount Everest in 2003 with the legendary American mountaineer
and double amputee Ed Hommer was suddenly dashed when Ed was tragically
killed by rockfall on a training climb of Mount Rainier. Later that
year, Tom McMillan received the opportunity to climb Mount Everest,
and invited Nawang to climb it with him. They gained the summit of Everest
on their first attempt, despite the fact that Nawang had decided not
to train for the climb and risk injuring his leg or prosthesis. For
the Cho Oyu climb, Nawang plans to test some new high tech prosthetic
equipment from a company in Seattle, Washington. This year, Nawang is willing
to strap on his crampons, grab his ice axes, and take on a big peak
again with his Friends Beyond Borders team to raise global awareness
of the abilities and needs of amputees around the world. In doing so,
he will become the first trans-tibial amputee to climb two of
the world’s Expedition leader Tom McMillan
highlights just how important and effective this type of encouragement
can be. Not knowing quite what to do for Nawang a few months after his
leg was crushed in the 2000 accident, Tom sent him a copy of the book
“Second Ascent“, showing the struggles and remarkable accomplishments
of American climber-amputee and MIT professor Hugh Herr.
The effect was life changing:
One of the team’s supporters
this year is the blind American rock climber and mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer,
who climbed Mount Everest in 2002. Erik has suggested that the team
visit the energetic and courageous blind Tibetan teens from the Braille
Without Borders school in Lhasa who climbed with him to 21,000ft on
the north side of Everest in 2004. We are also inviting the Chinese
Mountaineering Association and other alpine clubs in the region to have
amputees from their countries trek to our Cho Oyu base camp to meet
Nawang and his team. Tom McMillan’s wife, Linda,
who will serve as the team’s Base Camp Manager and Public Relations
Manager, explains the team’s motivation this way: “Amputees, especially those
in developing countries, struggle to overcome a huge ‘mountain’ of personal,
financial, and social obstacles every day. The Friendship Beyond Borders
team, sponsors, and supporters recognize this, and honor amputees’ efforts
to keep going despite the constant challenges they face in their lives.
From the summit of Mount Everest, we saw a clear path into the future
for our team to be able, through climbs and presentations, to motivate
and challenge people around the world to think differently about what
amputees can accomplish. By climbing in China this year, we want to
highlight that country’s accomplishments in devoting the first two decades
of this century to improving the lives and rights of its almost 60 million
disabled people. We also want to provide encouragement to the aspirations
of China’s amputees and other disabled people, as the country prepares
to host the Olympics and serve as an important leader in the world economy.”
The CHO OYU Spring 2006: Friendship
Beyond Borders Expedition will focus public attention on the huge economic
and social value of helping amputees find ways to succeed in life. In
particular, it will help to shatter stereotypes and preconceptions about
what amputees can achieve when given opportunities and friendship, beyond the borders of nationalities, cultures, and
physical abilities. And it will certainly challenge
all of us to reconsider what might be preventing success in our own
lives. The
team plans to begin its expedition to China in early April, stopping
first in San Francisco’s sister city, Shanghai. They will be welcomed
there at an event held at the new offices of San Francisco-based AMB
Property Corporation, which helped to sponsor the team’s 2004 expedition.
From there they will fly to Lhasa where they will rest, acclimatize
to that altitude, and rendezvous with their Sherpa teammates arriving
from Nepal. They will then travel to the mountain trailhead by truck,
trek to the Cho Oyu Advance Base Camp (18,700ft; 5,700m), and begin
their acclimatization regime. They expect to reach the almost 27,000ft
summit via the Normal route some time in late April or May, depending
on when the optimal “weather window” on the mountain presents itself. The
American Alpine Club (AAC), based in Golden, Colorado is again conferring
tax-deductible benefits to donations made to the expedition. For information
about how you can participate in the expedition through your monetary
and in-kind donations, please visit the Friendship Beyond Borders website.
Monetary donations can easily be made online this year via the AAC’s
“Blacktie-Colorado” donation system: http://friendshipbeyondborders.com/expedition/contributors.htm Further
information, news, images, and updates on the expedition can be found
at the Friendship Beyond Borders website: http:///FriendshipBeyondBorders.com.
For additional
information, contact: Linda McMillan, MBA CHO OYU Spring
2006: Friendship Beyond Borders Expedition
c/o McMillan Associates 721 Appleberry Road San Rafael, CA 94903 415.309.7961 mobile 415.479.0526 fax
http://FriendshipBeyondBorders.com McMillan
Associates, located
in Marin County just north of San Francisco, is a business consulting
firm focused on creating innovative solutions and sustainable economic
success for businesses and communities. We also believe that strong
businesses and communities result when their people contribute in many
ways to overall economic, environmental, and social success. Not only
do we encourage this in others, we make it an important part of what
we do. For further information, please visit our website at: www.lindamcmillan.com.
The American Alpine Club is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that has represented climbers for over a century. Founded in 1902, The American Alpine Club is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting climbing knowledge, conserving mountain environments, and serving the American climbing community. The AAC has members throughout the U.S. and across the globe. For further information, please visit our website at: http://AmericanAlpineclub.org/ # # # # # |
