Here’s an inspiring story from the Idaho Statesman for everyone who has ambitions of climbing big mountains all over the world. It’s about 54 year old Wendy Booker, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, but has still managed to climb on six of the seven summits, topping out on three, and now has her sights squarely set on Everest in the spring.
Wendy is currently training with Brooke Barnes of the Mountain Link guide services in preparation for heading to Nepal in the a few months time. She is learning to walk on ladders, with crampons in place, in order to handle the dangerous Khumbu Ice Falls region, and if all goes as planned, she’ll be standing on the summit in late May of this year.
Booker set a goal for herself to climb the seven summits, and she has done so on six of those mountains, successfully topping out on three of them according to this story. She’s managed to reach the top of Mount Vinson in Antarctica, Aconcagua in Argentina, and Mount Kosciuszko in Australia. Presumably she didn’t summit on Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Elbrus in Russia, and Denali in the United States.
If successful, Wendy will be the first person with multiple sclerosis to summit Everest. Good luck Wendy! We’ll be sending positive thoughts your way this spring!
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So many inspirational stories on this mountain. How can any of us even compare.
Yep! I agree. It’s one of the best things about writing this blog is that all of these amazing people I write about are such an inspiration to all the things I want to do as well. 🙂