Local man home after climbing Mount Everest
‘I am so relieved to be off the mountain,’ Grant Maughan said.
A dozen South Florida explorers and adventurers gathered Sunday night to welcome home one of their own, Grant Maughan, on his return from a two-month climb to the top of the world. Maughan was on a team of climbers that reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 19.
“We lived vicariously through Grant,” said Scott Richards of Boca Raton. “Grant does things the rest of us dream of.”
That’s high praise coming from Richards, who organizes ultra-running races — marathons that can top 100 miles in length. In fact, the gathering at Terminal 2 of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Sunday included other ultra-runners, seafarers that have sailed across oceans and a highland games competitor.
“I can’t believe all you guys came out,” Maughan said as the welcome party clapped, cheered and told other passengers walking through the terminal of Maughan’s feat.
Most of those welcoming Maughan first met him when he was a boat captain stationed at the Rybovich Marina in West Palm Beach. It was there that he connected with local running clubs and got into super long-distance marathons.
“This is where I started running, in Palm Beach County,” said Maughan, a native of Australia.
Many of those ultra-marathons followed routes that cut through mountains, Maughan said, and he became interested in mountaineering about four years ago.
That interest grew fast. He climbed Mount Hood in Oregon and Mount Shasta in California. He then summited Aconcagua, the world’s second-highest peak, in the Andes Mountains in Argentina.
Still, Maughan recalls he didn’t necessarily set his sights on Everest, particularly because of the expense and the amount of time it requires.
A sort of chance encounter led to the opportunity to climb Everest this spring, Maughan said. So, on April 6, Maughan set out for Asia.
The Everest trek was even more arduous than Maughan expected.
“Everything is against you as you get higher and higher,” he said. “The lack of oxygen, the weather, the fatigue.”
In both instances, bodies of climbers whose attempts ended tragically served as constant reminders that one misstep could be fatal.
After two months on the mountain, mostly to acclimate to thin air at Base Camp, Maughan and the seven other climbers in his team made their way up the north face of Everest on the Tibet side. Along the way, two members of the team were forced to abandon the quest to reach the top.
For Maughan and five others, the adventure culminated in a 12-hour climb to the summit from Camp 3 that ended on the summit the morning of May 19.
Maughan’s 14 minutes on the top of the world provided a spectacular view, but it was “unbearably” cold and windy, he said. The three cameras he brought along froze and were inoperable.
It didn’t matter because playing tourist was the last thing on his mind.
“I have to tell you, we were not giving each other highfives and taking selfies,” Maughan said. “All we were thinking was getting back down safely. I was scared on the way up and I was scared on the way down.”
The trek down was no less taxing or harrowing.
Part of the climb down included sliding on a ledge toward a 43-year-old ladder. Maughan, who is blind in his left eye, couldn’t see the top rung. Fortunately, a Sherpa grabbed him by the top of his backpack and guided him to the step.
Reaching Base Camp 3, at 26,000 feet, Maughan learned someone had stolen his sleeping bag. Had he not been lent one, he might have frozen that night. A member of the team suffered snow blindness and needed assistance off the mountain.
Looking back, Maughan reflects on the challenge — not so much the accomplishment.
“It’s about conquering fear,” he said. “I’ve always been afraid of heights. There is always fear in you when you’re on the mountain. But you know that you are trained, you are prepared, so you put your head down and you do what you have to do.”
The sensation he feels now is the same as the one he felt upon reaching the base of Everest.
“I am so relieved to be off the mountain,” he said, laughing.
Nonetheless, Maughan’s mountaineering bucket list isn’t complete.
He would like to summit Mount Denali. A previous climb on the Alaska mountain had to be called off when a nine-day storm off the Bering Straits kept them from making it to the summit.
For now, though, Maughan said he will focus on his running. Next up is a 315-mile race across Tennessee followed by another super marathon in Death Valley.
“Right now, I want to get some sleep, put on some weight, get over the fatigue
and start running,” he said.