'Working my hardest': Waterford man aims to be youngest Irish person to summit Mount Everest

Adam Sweeney from Dunmore East in Co Waterford is on a mission to become Ireland's youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.

Now aged 20, Adam will be 22 by the time he completes the challenge, making him four years younger than the current youngest Irish person to have done it. 

The idea started when Adam was in Transition Year in school while on work placement in Dubai. 

Covid struck and the trip was cut short so Adam had to fly home. 

This is when he started to toy with the idea of becoming Ireland's youngest person to make it to the world's highest peak as he didn't want to just sit around doing nothing.

Instead, Adam focused on cycling the length of Dubai through Ireland while climbing the highest peak in every county he passed through, letting the idea of Everest fester in his mind. 

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"When I did that, I was so under prepared, like I didn't bring a jacket for the first mountain, went to the wrong mountain then. It was a disaster," Adam said.

After that, he headed to the UK and climbed the three highest peaks in England, Scotland, and Wales in just 24 hours with his brother. 

Once he got home, Adam wondered what the next adventure would be and decided on South America. 

There he scaled Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, making him Ireland's youngest person to have done so.

On the expedition, Adam recalls everyone asking what the highest mountain others had climbed. 

Many people were mentioning over 5,000 metres while the highest Adam had gone was 1,200 metres. 

"It was tough because I was really underprepared, like with nutrition and water and stuff. But I knew I kind of always had Everest in the back of my head since the cycle, and I knew if I got up that I would start pushing for Everest," Adam said.

Someone called Jason Black then reached out to Adam asking would he like to go to AmaDablam which is not as high as Everest but a lot more technical. 

Before facing that mountain, Adam, Jason, and others in the group took on Island Peak in Nepal. 

"That was like a 23-hour slog on a summer day so we were all wrecked. Then we had two days to prepare for AmaDablam because you have to acclimatise," he said. 

One person from the group had to stop at base camp and although the rest made it to the final camp, they all called it quits in the final thirty minutes.

This meant Adam and his sherpa were the only ones from the group to summit AmaDablam.

"It's bit bittersweet coming down because you obviously want to stand on top with your team, but yeah class to get up," Adam said. 

He said it was really tough because of how technical of a climb it was and the lack of sleep. 

"I remember getting up there and I almost lay down just to take a second and the sherpa was, like, 'Ah, look around" and I though 'Gosh, give me a sec,' like I was grand, just wrecked. I had enough energy to get down but then he just lit a cigarette and I remember thinking 'Jesus, it's mad, like they're just different beasts," Adam said. 

Adam is now preparing to tackle Everest, highlighting that there is a lot that needs to be done. 

He completed the Dublin Marathon over the weekend which he feels will be a great help as cardio is important while climbing mountains. 

He has also been in the gym as climbing mountains with 20kg bags requires a lot of upper body strength. 

The stairmaster has also been a great help but a lack of high mountains in Ireland has made the training and preparation a little bit tough. 

"In Ireland and even in Waterford, there's the likes of the Comeraghs but sure you're never going to be able to get the altitude over here," Adam said. 

With attempting to scale Everest less than six months away, Adam says he's "really looking forward to it." 

He will be tackling the challenge alongside two others - Jason Black and former Mayo intercounty footballer Padraig O'Hora.

Adam says he's really glad that his teammates are putting in the work and preparation like he is. 

"It's nice to see your teammates putting in a lot of the work as well because at the end of the day, it's not just you if something goes wrong up there. It's the other two boys you want to kind of trust fully," he said.

He added that although coming back from Everest as Ireland's youngest person to do it would be a massive achievement, it's not the end goal. 

"I don't really mind coming home without having a summit in the bag, because, of course, it's a lot more important to come back alive. I would be really annoyed in myself if I didn't put in the preparation though," Adam said. 

"I'd love to see the younger generation coming up as well, and kind of having the confidence saying, 'Look, I don't have to wait till I'm 40 or whatnot to go and get this done,' because you never know what could  happen. You could get hit by a bus or something like that and then you've wasted what you want to do your entire life. It's just about going out and giving it a go. Hopefully this inspires people to actually do stuff, no matter their age, old, or young," he added.

Adam and his team will spend roughly 50 days in the Himalayas, including travel and acclimatisation days. 

He says you spend some time on a different mountain to get used to the altitude as once you pass 8,000 metres, or the 'death zone,' your body will start to struggle. 

"I've never been above that," Adam said.

"I've got to 7,000 metres but 8,000 is kind of when your body starts to deteriorate so you want to just be in there for as little as possible. You don't want to go up there and be sitting in the dead zone waiting. You want to be acclimatised for that already," he said. 

He also highlighted how the mountain has been garnering a bad reputation recently due to people who can afford to go up but are not preparing for it.

He said this "low population" of people are "destroying the values of the mountain." 

In terms of support, Adam says it's been fantastic, especially locally.

He added that his parents, who own Dunmore East Adventure Centre, have always been his biggest fan and pushed him to get out there.

They have kayaked and windsurfed all around the world and Adam found the stories about their adventures inspiring. 

He said this ignited the fire to go explore the world inside him. 

"From a young age, they always encouraged me to kind of go off and do the stuff. Even when I told them about my plan they thought it was a great idea so it's always been encouraged from them," Adam said. 

It will cost Adam around €60,000 to get to the top of Everest between flights and paying for the expedition. 

He has a GoFundMe set up where people can help him to get there as well as a Facebook page where people can follow along the journey.