New Record Time for Seven Summits is 117 Days
Steve Plain is an Australian mountaineer who just climbed Mount Everest and set a new record for climbing the seven summits in only 117 days.
He was told by doctors he would be confined to a wheelchair after breaking his neck a few years ago.
Iswari Poudel of Himalayan Guides Nepal said he got a phone call from the base camp saying that Plain along with two guides reached the 8,850-metre peak about 7 a.m. and were descending this morning.
In 2014 he was swimming at the beach when he was dumped by a wave, head first into the sand. He was knocked unconscious, but his life was saved by a friend and two lifesavers.
Plain broke his C2, C3 and C7 vertebrae and had numerous other injuries. He was told by doctors he should be in a wheelchair.
Plain, 36, from Perth, climbed Mount Vinson in Antarctica on Jan. 16. He followed that with Mount Aconcagua in South America, Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mount Carstensz Pyramid in Papua New Guinea, which covers Australia and Oceania, Mount Elbrus in Europe and Denali in North America.
Polish climber Janusz Kochanski had the previous record of fastest to climb the seven peaks, doing it in 126 days last year.
A government official at the base camp, Gyanendra Shrestha, said Xia Boyu was among more than 40 climbers who reached the summit on Monday because of favorable weather conditions on the mountain.
He said several more are expected to attempt the peak this week.
Plain’s last post to social media said, “What a day. I’m actually lost for words. Three-and-a-half years ago I was lying in hospital with a broken neck and at that time set myself the goal climbing the seven summits in under four months. Today I completed that goal.”