Next summer, an A-level student from Belfast is hoping to become the youngest Irish person to reach the top of Mount Everest, but it’s not the record he is chasing, it’s the accomplishment
MATTHEW TAYLOR, a Belfast A-level student, is aiming to become the youngest Irish person to achieve the summit of Mount Everest – a dream he has entertained since his early teenage years. Sometime in the early summer of next year he hopes to be on top of the world; he will be just 19.
When, as a 13-year-old, he was first on the 850-metre Slieve Donard mountain in the Mournes in Co Down, Taylor began forming the ambition that eventually he would climb a mountain more than 10 times that height: the 8,848-metre Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world.
His first experience of hill-walking was as part of the Duke of Edinburgh scheme when, with fellow students and some teachers from the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (commonly known as Inst), he camped overnight on the Mourne Mountains. “Right from that moment I was hooked – I just found it really exciting,” he says.
When 18-year-old Taylor began telling his Inst classmates of his plans in the past year or so, some of the reaction was typical of what you would expect from teenage boys. “‘You’re going to do Everest? Aye, right!’ was what quite a number said,” he says. “But there were others too who said, ‘Go for it, Matthew.’ My teachers were also extremely supportive.”
Before he can get to the Himalayan foothills he must first raise almost £36,000 (€44,000) to be part of a 2013 Everest expedition run by the Adventure Peaks organisation, which is based in Ambleside, Cumbria. It’s obviously not the best economic time to be seeking such sponsorship, but Taylor is busily making his pitch for support to businesses, family and friends.
Taylor was also inspired by Bear Grylls, the English adventurer, writer and television presenter, who climbed Everest when he was 23. Grylls himself lived in Co Down until the age of four. A few years ago, Taylor read Grylls’s autobiography, Mud, Sweat and Tears, and was impressed not only by how Grylls made the summit of Everest, but also by how he doggedly raised the sponsorship to realise his ambition. “Bear Grylls said you may have to send out 1,000 letters to get the sponsorship, but you just have to keep going and keep going and keep going until you get there.”
Costs for the 70-day expedition, beginning in March next year, include a $10,000 (€7,562) climbing permit from the Nepalese authorities, other permits, Sherpa support, flights, hotel and other accommodation, tents, medical supplies and an expensive climbing kit of items such as crampons, ice axe, harness, down suit and gloves, face mask, sleeping bag and boots.
It’s a professionally-led “non-guided” expedition, and there are dangers involved, which Taylor and his parents – Peter, a commercial pilot, and Anne, a nurse – are well aware of. The open group of about 12 climbers will have a leader and Sherpa team accompanying them but, as stated by Adventure Peaks, they will “not be able to protect your every move and you must therefore be prepared to move between camps unsupervised”.
Taylor is also conscious that many people have died attempting Everest and many more have lost fingers, toes or limbs due to frostbite. But the spirit of adventure seems in him. “I think nowadays with the amount of safety and knowledge about the weather and so on, it is not as dangerous as it used to be.” His parents’ attitude was, “we are not going to hold you back”, he says.
In the meantime, Taylor has been gaining experience for his attempt on Everest. In February he attended a course on winter climbing in Scotland, and in August last year he climbed the highest mountain in the western Alps, the 4,810-metre Mont Blanc. He finds it awkward to put into precise words his personal sensations when he reached the summit but it is clear it is something deep and transcendent.
“At the top I had a feeling that I find extremely difficult to explain, but it was phenomenal. It was very strange. I thought it was absolutely unbelievable when I got to the top. I looked around me, and it was a clear day, there were only a couple of clouds in the sky. You could see down to Chamonix, you could see the Matterhorn – it just gave you this inner feeling that you have accomplished something quite big, after all the effort you have put in. In a strange way it is very satisfying. I haven’t really felt like that in any other way.”
For his A-levels this summer he is studying maths, physics and PE, and hopes to do an automotive engineering degree at Loughborough University in Leicestershire, and thereafter pursue a career as an officer in the British army. But first he intends to take a year out after his A-level exams to concentrate on preparing for the assault on Everest along the South Col route.
He is booked on an expedition to Muztagh Ata in China this summer. This mountain, said to be one of the “easiest” such peaks in the world to climb, is just over 7,500 metres, and will test his capabilities and endurance at high altitude.
He displays no sign of nervousness about either Muztagh Ata or Everest, just a great sense of excitement and adventure. The youngest Irish person to have climbed Everest is 26-year-old Limerickman Mark Quinn, who reached the top in May last year. American Jordan Romero is the youngest to make the summit, which he did at the age of 13.
Taylor said he would like to beat the Irish record but it’s not the main driving force behind his ambition. “It’s a factor, but I’m not doing it because I would be the youngest Irish person on Everest, but because it is a dream I have, and because of the feeling you get on top of a mountain.”
His parents are considering taking a hiking holiday in the lower regions of the Himalayas towards the end of his expedition and hope to be present when he descends from the great mountain. “They would hopefully meet me at base camp when I return. That would be nice.”
He adds: “I know of the dangers but plan to prepare for what could happen.”
Matthew Taylor can be contacted at matt_east23@hotmail.co.uk
