Head over heart as Jason Black’s Team Ireland abandon Mount Everest summit attempt
Letterkenny mountaineer Black had earlier confirmed he had failed to shake off an ankle injury to lead his team to the top of the world and would instead conduct operations from Camp 4
Jason Black’s Team Ireland were forced to abandon their first attempt at summiting the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, in the interests of safety.
Letterkenny mountaineer Black had earlier confirmed he had failed to shake off an ankle injury to lead his team to the top of the world and would instead conduct operations from Camp 4, from which the team set off on their summit push.
Black’s Team Ireland includes Eanna McGowan from Dublin; Adam Sweeney, a Waterford man, and Padraig O’Hora, the former Mayo Gaelic footballer.
Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth above sea level, reaching a height of 8,848.86 metres (29,031.7 feet) and is located in the Himalayas on the international border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.
“Unfortunately, at 8,450 metres, they encountered a difficult situation with the ropes being buried in the snow and frozen overnight,” Black said. “So, the Sherpa team worked extremely hard to try to remove the ropes and to break trail, but to no avail.
“And the right decision was made in the early hours of the morning to return to Camp 4 for safety. I can report now that the team are safely back in Camp 4 and is doing okay. They are now resting. And we are hearing now working to get more oxygen and resupplies to them in Camp 4, with the possible option of going for another summit push tonight.
"I will get back to the members shortly to see how Adam, Eanna, and Pádraig are feeling physically and emotionally and what the next steps will be. But to everybody back home and around the world that's been following with great pride, just to report that the lads gave it their all, got as far as the balcony at 8,450 meters and just due to circumstances beyond their control, they've had to turn back and are safely now back in Camp 4.
"They are exhausted, as you can imagine, but are now safe. And in the next few hours, we'll make a decision on what the next steps are going to be. Thanks, everybody from all over the world. Messages have been flowing in for the prayers, the well wishes, and the kind messages and we passed them on to the lads.
“So from myself here at camp, that's where we're at, that's where things are. Everything is stable, everything is safe, and the next steps will be decided in the next few hours.
"This is high-altitude mountaineering at its rawest and most demanding. Sometimes success is not measured by standing on the summit, but by having the courage and discipline to make the right decision when it matters most. Thanks, guys. God bless.”
Black is a professional mountaineer who first summitted Mount Everest in May 2013. Of his own attempts to reach the summit, he said: "I have picked up a pretty severe ankle injury, enough of an injury not to allow me to continue. “I don’t have it when I’m walking in my normal boots, but the minute I put the crampons on, it changes the angle of my ankle and, for whatever reason, whatever ligament problem I’ve picked up, it’s not allowing me to continue safely.”
He was the first person from Donegal to reach the peak and famously unfurled a Donegal flag at the summit. He then reached the 8,611m summit of K2 in 2018, becoming only the second Irishman ever to do so, following on from Limerick’s Ger McDonnell, who tragically died on the descent.
The South Route Expedition Black’s team is following the historic path of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay - the same route that first conquered Everest in 1953.
Everest has been climbed 84 times by 65 Irish climbers (nine women and 56 men) since the first Irish success in 1993. The first Irish climber to reach the summit of Everest was Dawson Stelfox from Antrim, followed by Pat Falvey two years later.