Lorna Siggins spoke to Dr Clare O'Leary before she set off to conquer Everest
Cork doctor Clare O'Leary (32) flies into the Nepalese Khumbu valley tomorrow on the first stage of her second attempt to climb Mount Everest.
A bearded Saint Patrick was among several hundred well-wishers at Cork airport when Dr O'Leary, expedition leader Pat Falvey and fellow team member John Joyce, from Tuam, Co Galway, set off on their adventure last week.
Dr O'Leary, from Bandon, Co Cork, was a member of last year's Irish Everest expedition which aimed to put the first Irish woman on the 29,035-foot-high mountain.
Once again, she has taken leave from her job as gastroenterologist at Cork University Hospital, and has secured sponsorship for her renewed bid from the pharmaceutical company, Wyeth. Two members of last year's group - Mick Murphy from west Cork and Ger McDonnell from Kilcornan, Co Limerick - made the summit on May 22nd, but both Dr O'Leary and fellow female climber Hannah Shields had to turn back.
Ms Shields, a dentist from Kilrea, Co Derry, was within sight of her target at 28,710 feet when she had to retreat with frostnip, while Dr O'Leary's efforts were thwarted at 24,500 feet when she was hit with a bad stomach bug. The group, directed by Cork's Everest summiteer and commercial expedition leader, Pat Falvey, had taken the southern route from Nepal which was first climbed by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing 50 years before.
Their expedition was one of two Irish on the mountain during the busy 50th anniversary; a Northern Irish group put two climbers on the summit via the North Ridge route several days after the Murphy/McDonnell achievement. This route from Tibet was the approach chosen by the first Irish Everest expedition in 1993, when team leader Dawson Stelfox made the successful ascent on May 27th of that year.
Given that six Irish men are now part of Everest history, Dr O'Leary is more determined than ever to become the first Irish woman. The Irish female altitude record is still held by nurse Josie Kieran, who reached 28,750 feet in May 1998.
Speaking to The Irish Times just before she left Cork, Dr O'Leary said that she had resolved in Kathmandu last year to return to the mountain as soon as she could.
"I was really disappointed to get sick like that," she said. "You think of all the reasons why you wouldn't make it before heading off, but I never thought it would be something as simple as a tummy bug."
She had discussed returning with fellow team member Hannah Shields, but Ms Shields is now in training for the fastest unsupported crossing to the North Pole next year. "Ultimately, returning so soon depended on getting finance for another attempt, and I was lucky to get Wyeth," Dr O'Leary said. Accompanying her will be John Joyce, an insurance broker and auctioneer from Tuam, Co Galway, who was base camp manager for the 2003 expedition.
The climbers will be supported by a team of eight Nepalese Sherpas, led by Penba Gyalji Sherpa, and Pat Duggan, a network administrator with Cork County Council, will be in charge of communications. They will spend the next fortnight acclimatising on a trek through the Khumbu valley to Everest base camp, at 17,700 feet, on the edge of the treacherous Khumbu glacier. Having marked Easter at base camp, they will spend the next three to four weeks in the slow, but steady, establishment of four camps up the mountain in preparation for a summit bid in early May.
The Wyeth Irish Everest expedition's progress can be followed on www.patfalvey.com and The Irish Times' HealthSupplement will be carrying periodical reports, talking to the climbers via satellite link from the mountain.