Aoibhin Garrihy’s husband John Burke is finally heading home after being the first Clare man to summit Mount Everest.
However, before the 38-year-old jets into Shannon Airport on Monday, John has opened up about his experience climbing the earth’s highest mountain.
The hotelier, who Aoibhin travelled with to Everest Base Camp at the beginning of April, reached Everest’s summit at 9:45am local time on Tuesday, and completed his descent on Thursday.
In statement, John revealed that his journey was far from easy, writing, “The final night was hell on earth, as I witnessed casualties of the mountain first hand, passing the first body soon after setting off.”
Brave: John described the last night on Everest as “hell on earth” | INSTAGRAM
“I could see the fear of death in the faces of some people close to me. At one stage I had to intervene with a Romanian who seemed to have summit fever, an inability to make a rational decision about turning back.”
Aside from it being a long-time dream of his, John took on the challenge to raise much-needed funds and awareness for the charity Elevate, which he and his wife Aoibhin established to promote wellbeing among young people and provide encouragement to them to reach their potential and follow their dreams in life.
“After preparing over that time on mountains around the world, I figured it was time to attempt the big one! The final plan was 12 months in the making. I treated Everest like a work project; finding the best people to work with, breaking down the action plan into segments to enable me get to the summit of the world.
“I was fully aware of the risks but focused only on controlling those things I could control. All in, the trip took nearly two months in total and culminated in the final summit push, which started on May 13 and saw me reach the summit Tuesday last at 9.35am local time.
“Personally, I never felt beyond my physical limits but I was certainly reaching my max. Preparation was essential, not least spending some time driving out any possibility of self-doubt and it worked well for me. That meant not doing things like how long left or even looking at my watch as these would only fester doubts.
“It’s estimated that on the summit night alone we burn in the region of 20,000 calories. I consumed no more than 300 and had nausea issues for three days and it effectively shut down my food consumption and liquids too. You end up feeling like your body is consuming itself, which it does anyway in the death zone above 8000 metres.
“The descent is actually where most accidents happen the most and this is where you really have to tune into the max. I lost concentration a bit on a narrow technical section close to the top. It was about a foot wide but only a drop of 15 feet to the next ledge. But I thought if I slip here and break any bone in my leg, that’s it, I’m dead,” John added.
Coming home: John will return to a hero’s welcome – and his wife Aoibhin | VIPIRELAND.COM
Meanwhile, John’s wife Aoibhin said, “It’s been a roller coaster few weeks. We focused on the positive all the time but we were aware at the same time of the serious risks involved in climbing Everest. I was of course anxious but also extremely excited for him, the the time had finally arrived for his dream to be realised.
“We even got family and friends together for a prayer service in the Armada on Monday ahead of his final push for the summit. I’m so proud of him; it’s an incredible achievement. Only 50 percent who try succeed but, more than anything, thank God he’s making it back safely,” she added.
John will return to a hero’s homecoming at Shannon Airport this Monday 22nd at 4:30pm.
