It’s easy to assume that once you have stood on the summit of Everest, the world laid out before you, that no other climb will offer quite the same challenge. However, hanging from ropes on the icy face of Aconcagua’s glacier in South America, their bodies shuddering uncontrollably with cold, their fingers at risk of … Continue reading
High-altitude training at sea level is not for the easily embarrassed. For the past few weeks, daybreak sees Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala and Johann Peries rise and gather their gear before they head to the beach or to a park. Endurance training has them pitting their strength against the high waves or lifting 20-kg weights in each … Continue reading
It’s been three years since anyone has made it to the summit of the world’s tallest mountain. But in May a young Sri Lankan woman climbed 8,848m up to stand on the roof of the world. Just 300m from the summit, her climbing partner was told he was running out of oxygen and would have … Continue reading
About six km away from Pooneryn, Ruvan Ranatunga could almost taste the salt on his tongue as a warm wind swept the scent of dried villus toward him. Ahead lay the Indian Ocean and the end of his long journey. By his side, on this final stretch, were family and friends, among them Indunil de … Continue reading
The view from the summit of Ama Dablam is said to be incomparable – a 360 degree vista edged all around by the cloud wreathed peaks of the Himalayas. Defining the edges of the horizon are the giants, Mt. Everest and Lhotse and there too is Nuptse and Pumori, the mountain known as ‘Everest’s daughter.’ … Continue reading
