On top of the world
Bothwell climber Ricky Munday prepares to scale Everest this May
Discovered as the highest mountain in the world by Bengali Radhanath Sikhdar in 1852, as part of the Himalayan range between Nepal and China, Everest would cost the lives of 24 men, the efforts of 15 expeditions and would take 101 years before it was conquered.
George Leigh Mallory was behind
Bothwell man Ricky Munday hopes to literally be on top of the world in May as he attempts to conquer Everest.
The 40-year-old is making final preparations to climb the mountain’s North Ridge in memory of his twin uncles Michael and Patrick Mcgowan, who were treated by Macmillan Nurses.
At 29,029 feet, Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Ricky has been planning the expedition to Tibet for over a year now and has secured significant financial support to help finance it.
Adventure travel company Wild Guanabana are the main sponsor, providing funding and satellite communication capability that will allow Ricky to post updates from Everest between April 6 and June 4.
Ricky, who now lives in Cambridge, said: “This will be the most challenging expedition I’ve ever attempted and I’m excited to be following in the footsteps of pioneering British mountaineers.
“Overall, the north side of Everest has more technical difficulty than the south side, although fixed ropes and ladders are placed on the three most difficult sections. The north the first three expeditions to the peak, and on June 8, he and Andrew Irvine made an attempt to reach the summit and were never seen again.
Nobody knows if they succeeded, but evidence suggests otherwise. Mallory’s‘remarkably well-preserved’ corpse was discovered in 1999 at 26,760 feet. can be significantly windier.
“It has been a dream for quite a long time – at least 10 years. I’m attempting to climb the three highest mountains in every continent, and Everest is one of them.
“Everest is the highest mountain in the world, so I want to climb it. It has taken me 10 years to build up my experience and I’ve got to just below 7000m on the summit of Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside the Himalayas.”
In preparation for the climb, Ricky has spent the last decade organising and completing 15 expeditions to the world’s greatest ranges, climbing four of the seven continental summits.
After flying into Lhasa and travelling 900km overland to the Chinese basecamp (5200m), Ricky will spend six weeks slowly climbing up the mountain to set up and stock the higher camps, and to fully acclimatise, before descending back down to base camp to rest and recuperate.
He’ll then spend seven days climbing back up through the camps to make his final summit bid.
Ricky said: “I’ll have to deal with bad weather, high altitude, personal admin and looking after
The first confirmed summit was by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and sherpa Tenzing Norgay on May 29, 1953. An arduous stage of the climb is called The Hillary Step in his honour.
News of the success, as part of a British expedition, reached Britain on June 2, coinciding with Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. Hillary was colder and my kit in difficult conditions – I believe I have the skills to look after myself.
“It’s the highest point on earth and it’s not quite touching space, but if I reach it, I’ll be higher than every other human on the planet.
“I’ll be amazed if I get there, I’ve dreamed about it for so long, and all the hard work and preparation will be worth it if I reach the top – it will be amazing.
“I’ve been on 15 expeditions and I haven’t always succeeded, but I have had some absolutely amazing experiences. You’re 6000m up a mountain and the sunrise hits, so it suddenly becomes light and you get amazing views – you’re also so close to nature, and it’s just mindblowing.
“It’s the history, the highest peak, the dream, and it’s all coming true.
“It will be absolutely fantastic just to be there, I feel so privileged and massively grateful to everyone who has supported me and made it possible.”
Ricky is head of corporate services at the British Antarctic Survey, the UK’S national polar science and operations organisation, and is an ambassador for Finding Your Feet (FYF), a charity set up by Corinne Hutton to help amputees and those with limb deficiencies.
It has taken me 10 years to build up my experience . . .
knighted and Tenzing became a national hero in India, Nepal and Tibet.
On May 22, 1963, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld reached the summit via the daunting West Ridge.
Although the summit had been reached four times by 11 men at that stage, none had done so via the West Ridge, which is still considered to be a tremendous feat of mountaineering.
There are numerous attempts to climb Everest every year, but it is far from without its risks; it’s estimated that for every four who reach the summit, one climber dies. By 2016, it was estimated the mountain holds the bodies of 200 climbers, some of which are counted as unofficial ‘landmarks’.