Today I went to the Apex for this month's talk - Climbing Everest.
It was presented by Amanda Richmond formerly a school PE teacher in Suffolk. She told us the story, illustrated with fabulous photos, of the preparation for and 10-week expedition to conquer Everest in 2009. She and her partner Neil were part of a 13-strong group led by Adele Pennington. This was her introduction to the talk..
She told us, illustrated with glorious photos, of the preparation she and her partner Neil did, climbing mountains in Mongolia and Bolivia and training in the Lake District. As part of their fitness training they used to go to Alton Water, run the 9 miles round it with backpacks filled with 2l bottles of water, get back to the car, run around and run the 9 miles round again in the other direction.
She explained the expedition, based for most of the time at Base Camp, went up and down the mountain several times, gradually going higher each time, to accustom them to the altitude and other conditions. Here are a couple of photos of her giving her presentation.
What she didn't tell us was, at the age of 54 then, she was the oldest woman from the UK to reach the summit.
What a fantastic achievement and what a fascinating story. Thank-you Amanda!
You can read the news story from The East Anglian Daily Times when she achieved her goal here and more about the expedition here in The Guardian.
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