Before
departing Minneapolis, Ed was interviewed by local news media at the
airport.
(click photo to enlarge)
Journal
1: The Expedition Begins!
by
Ed Hommer
Thursday,
August 9, 2001
Minneapolis, MN
Today the American-Canadian Expedition left Minnesota for Kathmandu, Nepal. From there, we’ll travel by truck on a weeklong journey through Tibet to the base of Mt. Everest.
From base camp it will take us about 50 days of intensive climbing and altitude acclimatization to reach the 29,000-foot summit of Mt. Everest. We’re going to take the steep Great Couloir route on the mountain’s north side, not the more traveled South Col route.
I have the utmost respect for this mountain. The mountain decides who succeeds and who fails, who stays and who goes home.
Although I lost my feet and lower legs to frostbite in a plane crash almost 20 years ago on Mt. McKinley in Alaska, I knew I would always return to climbing. I love climbing. So, I decided to pursue it to the best of my ability and become an even better climber. Two years ago, I became the first double-amputee to scale Mt. McKinley — the highest peak in North America.
My motivation to organize the expedition sprang from a desire to push the limits of what is possible as an amputee. I wanted to provide a testimony for people who find themselves up against hardship in their lives. I wanted to show them that they can still reach for the highest goals. They may not always be successful, but they’ve made the decision to go for it, to make the attempt. It’s about courage.
I hope to help others with my new nonprofit foundation, High Exposure. This venture will raise funds to help provide prostheses for amputees in Nepal and the U.S.
--Ed
