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Bikes, mud and zero testosterone

July 25th, 2009 | No Comments

Susan Greenwood gets downhill and dirty on a women-only mountain bike course in the French Alps

When it rains in Morzine it really means business. Locals probably don’t even have a word for “damp” in a vocabulary dominated by “torrential”, “downpour” and “total washout”. With nose pressed up against the misty window of the Kariboo cafe in neighbouring Les Gets, I survey the scene, latte in hand, and savour the smug satisfaction of being dry.

Strange, then, that two minutes later I find myself being hustled back on to my mountain bike and urged towards the chairlift. Rain doesn’t stop play, informs Jo Petterson, one of the pro downhill mountain bikers on hand for this week of female-only riding, it just means you get muddy. That’ll be why it’s called Dirtgirls, then.

The French Alps has long been a summer playground for mountain bikers, and the vast Portes du Soleil area is rightly regarded as the European epicentre of the sport. On the French side, along with Morzine and Les Gets, it encompasses the popular ski resorts of Avoriaz and Chatel, while also taking in the Swiss towns of Champéry, Morgins and Champoussin. The terrain is steep, the views – you’re near Mont Blanc – predictably humbling and the mountain biking little short of legendary.

Being a woman mountain biker can be quite challenging because you are pretty much guaranteed to be in the minority. Which makes arriving at Dirtgirls’ base for the week, Chalet Snion in the centre of Morzine, something of a revelation. Women outnumber men. The toilet seat is down. Conversation isn’t about the worst injury anyone has ever sustained and whether a video of the crash is on YouTube.

The women seated around the dinner table range from a jewellery designer to a chef, and while sizing me up for one of her fleet of Santa Cruz dual-suspension bikes, Dirtgirls’ creator, Sara Burdon, comments on my highlights. Camaraderie is established almost immediately. Gosh, I think as I trundle off to bed, ditching the testosterone and riding with girls is so much fun.

It’s not a sentiment I share the next day as I am unceremoniously spat off a corner on the infamous Pleney downhill track. At 3,300m long, with over 500m of vertical descent, it is a man-made lesson in facing your fears. Fionn Griffiths, the 2006 world downhill champion, decides it’s time for some cornering instruction. Seeking out a little-used track, she gets to work. And gradually, as the heavens open, the penny drops. Through a combination of patient demonstration and practice we start turning at speed against a backdrop of steaming mountains.

The Portes du Soleil marks out its mountain bike trails like its ski runs – head for a black and you had better have your wits about you. And like skiing, riding uphill is made a whole lot easier with the use of 13 bike-happy chairlifts. The bikes simply hang on the side and, after swaying rather precariously for the duration, are unhooked by lift attendants at the summit.

After the assault on the Pleney track we decide to ride some of the blue runs leading off the Les Chavannes lift in Les Gets. By now the mud is deep, the tree runs quite tight and the roots slippery. It is the sort of terrain I would usually try to avoid – even, shock horror, claiming my inferior strength as a reason I can’t ride it properly. This is not an option when you’ve watched four other women sail through the obstacles with style. It’s not really surprising I end up wrapped around a tree; that I get up for another go is.

By now the scenery is beginning to work its magic. Banked turns and a twisting single track pull us out on to sweeping open mountainside, giving us time to catch our breath before diving back into the fray, trails looping and plunging across the terrain like roller coasters. The coaches are constantly at our heels, offering advice to make us go faster, honing our style and providing support for shaky nerves.

My nerves are calming down by the time I’m on my second beer in the Crépu bar. Judging by the amount of mud on the floor, it’s a popular spot with Morzine’s mountain bikers. And there are a lot of them. While most ski resorts become ghost towns during the “off” season, Morzine is positively buzzing. Before dinner I head to the heated Olympic-sized outdoor pool and manage a length before cramp sets in. But thankfully nothing more arduous is planned for the evening than a three-course meal at the chalet, during which a fight erupts over who gets to eat the extra banoffee pie. Clearly “diet” is not a word female mountain bikers have much time for – nor is it one Sara at Dirtgirls factors into her menus.

The next day we are split into groups according to where we want to ride and – to put it bluntly – how good we are. High on my achievements the day before, I decide to follow Fionn and Jo to Chatel for some more lessons on the blue runs. A man flies over our heads across the valley attached to a zip wire confirming the dawning realisation that mountain bikers are not the only adrenalin junkies attracted here during the summer.

Halfway down we stop off at Chez Babette, a restaurant that has embraced fairy lights with enthusiasm and which, during the winter, you can ski into before being wrapped in faux fur blankets. We scramble up a scree slope and fill the doorway with helmets, pads and mud. Babette, the world’s most effervescent hostess, loves it. Refuelled, we drop down the valley, riding tiny bridges across rushing alpine rivers, the temperature falling every time we get close to them. I’m pretty sure the high five was invented for the end of a Portes du Soleil mountain bike run.

Back on the chairlift, bike swinging companiably to my right, I hear a rumble of thunder as clouds roll in. This time I know better than to think I’ll stay dry.

More fun for the girls on two wheels

Forest Freeride, Powys, Wales

These weekend courses in the Llanbrynmair forest are aimed at those with some experience of mountain biking who want to progress to the next level. They cover confidence at speed and the all-important cornering technique. Accommodation and bike hire can be arranged. The next course is 22-23 August, price £110.

• 01650 521301; forestfreeride.co.uk

Whistler Bike Park, Canada

This is where mountain biking gets serious. If you love life on full suspension, you will have to make the trip to Whistler at some point. Luckily Monday and Wednesday nights are women-only sessions, where females of all abilities can learn from experienced riders, guides and pros. If you want to push your riding, this is the place to be. A lift ticket plus the services of a guide costs from $27 (£15) a night until 7 September. Nights run from 6pm to 8pm.

• 00 1 604 904 8134; whistlerbike.com

Over the Bars Camp, Snowmass, Colorado

With pro riders and ex-racers on hand as instructors, your chances of going over the bars are pretty minimal. This five-day camp is aimed at intermediates and advanced riders, and spends two days honing fast downhill skills. But it also indulges your girly side with yoga and massage sessions. Prices from $1,200 (£729). The next camp is in June 2010.

• 00 1 208 709 8141; womensmountainbikecamp.com

Highlands and Islands Adventures, Cairngorms

As well as running women-only skills days in the Cairngorms, using the expertise of local rider Cat Shearer, Highlands and Islands will tailor any itinerary to remove the testosterone and add a bit of girly luxury. Prices and dates vary.

• 01463 239716; handiadventures.co.uk

• The next Dirtgirls (020 8123 5654; flowmtb.com) course runs from 15-22 August, and costs €800, including accommodation, breakfast and dinner, lift pass and transfers from Geneva

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The climb that leads to hell

July 24th, 2009 | No Comments

American vowed to come back in 2002 and gain revenge for being beaten by the climb into hell

With echoes of the Terminator, Lance Armstrong said after finishing a frustrated third atop Mont Ventoux in the 2002 Tour: “We’ll come back, I’m sure.” Seven years later, Armstrong, a man who thrives on personal battles, has a score to settle with the peak which will decide whether he stands on the podium tomorrow. He has never won there, in any race. The tale of frustration began in 2000, when he and Marco Pantani approached the top to contest the stage win, back in the days when the American’s dominance of the Tour was only just beginning.

Pantani was clinging on, a pale, tormented shadow of the (EPO-fuelled) climber who had won the 1998 Tour. Repeatedly he lost contact with Armstrong’s wheel, repeatedly he clawed his way back. Finally, the Texan appeared to let him reach the summit first. He later said he regretted the gesture, because he never managed to get to grips with the “Bald Mountain”. He suffered there in the Dauphiné Libéré race – which goes up almost every year – and lost again in the Tour in 2002, when he gave Richard Virenque a seven minute start at the foot of the mountain, in what seemed like a handicap race.

So it is personal today for Armstrong, but that is the way it has been with the Tourmen and the Ventoux since it appeared on the route in 1951. As Roland Barthes wrote, no other ascent seems to have a personality. “A god of evil, a despot of cyclists,” he called it. Barthes’s point was this: most of the Tour’s great ascents are passes, between two mountains. The Ventoux is unique because the cyclists have to go up a whole mountain, 5,000 feet from its vineyards at its base at Bédoin to its wind-blasted summit with the famous observatory. There is nothing else higher for many miles around. Ventoux stands alone, visible from 65 miles away. If the weather is clear, at some point today the Tourmen will come up a rise after leaving Montélimar, and they will see it, even if it is several hours of pedalling away. That plays on the mind, as does the steepness of the road, particularly the early kilometres, which go straight up the side of the mountain through a rock cutting and between stunted oak trees, without a single hairpin to give even a few seconds’ respite. It is also a relatively rare feature in the route: this is the 14th visit since 1951.

The mountain has its own microclimate: stifling heat one day – on his first time up there, Tom Simpson said he sweated so much his shorts nearly fell down – freezing cold the next. The conditions are intensified on the bare scree slopes at the top, where there is no shade on a sunny day and no shelter from the wind, only the vast view of Provence far far beneath the “sloping desert, the Sahara of stones”, as the late organiser Jacques Goddet called it.

Unlike any other climb on the Tour, the Ventoux has an evil reputation. Before the road was built to the top, Ventoux was fabled for wolves, and flash floods that wiped out herds of sheep, and its caves were said to lead to hell. Soon after the Tour’s first visit in 1951, Antoine Blondin wrote of the extreme effort it demanded of the cyclists: “We have seen riders descend into madness due to heat and stimulants, some going down the hairpins when they think they are going up. There are few happy memories attached to this witches’ cauldron, climbed with a heavy heart.”

It was this way even before the death of Simpson, in 1967, due to a cocktail of intense heat, amphetamines, alcohol and his indomitable willpower. Now, however, the two legends, mountain and man, are inextricably tied. Simpson’s monument stands near the summit, the goal for the many amateur cyclists who take on the climb, but, as I wrote in Put Me Back on My Bike, he has appropriated the whole mountain as a memorial visible from 65 miles away: you look at the mountain and think of the man.

But the 1965 world champion is not the only life claimed by the Giant of Provence. There was a host of crosses on the slopes to pilgrims who failed to make it to the chapel just below the summit. More recently, a cycling fan was struck by lightning on the day the 1994 race went over, soldiers from the observatory were frozen to death in blizzards, at least one driver died in the motor races that use the mountain, while most surreal of all, a woman tourist was killed in the 1970s by stones picked up by a particularly vicious wind on the summit.

Other cycling careers, besides that of Simpson, have ended here: the great French hopeful Jean-François Bernard pushed himself to the limit to win a time-trial here in the 1987 Tour, and was never the same again. In 1955 the Frenchman Jean Malléjac, a decent Tour rider from Brittany, keeled over and never raced again, and in the same year, the Swiss Ferdi Kübler, winner in 1950, had what seemed to be a nervous breakdown in the searing heat.

“Ventoux has killed Ferdi,” he muttered, words echoed half a century later by Armstrong. “Mont Ventoux doesn’t like Lance Armstrong,” said the seven-time winner. Many of the field will share that feeling, tempered by the fact that this year, the day before the finish in Paris, they will see the Champs Elysées from the top.

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Coldplay | 07.13 | Mountain View

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

Words & Images by: Tracy Nunnery

Coldplay :: 07.13.09 :: Shoreline Amphitheatre :: Mountain View, CA

Chris Martin – Coldplay :: 07.13 :: Shoreline Amphitheatre

So, someone mentioned something about a recession the other day. “Things are going to get worse before they get better,” they said. “People are going out less, choosing their entertainment options more carefully and have decided to forgo vacations this year.” At least that’s what the talking heads are saying on TV. Far-removed from the somber media reports of the soft economy, the sell-out crowd in attendance to see Brit rock superstars Coldplay found themselves worlds away from any crisis with their hard-earned dough well spent. The evening was filled with incredibly tight arrangements, elegantly uncomplicated visual effects, an endearing frontman and even a few surprises for their economy-conscious fans. Having never been a huge follower of the band, I now understand why they are one of the biggest bands on the planet.


More than a year into their tour in support of their best-selling, Grammy-winning 2008 Best Rock Album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, vocalist Chris Martin along with guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion appeared fresh and energetic. Aside from their obvious talent as musicians, the band seemed to truly relish the opportunity to play their music and interact with the crowd. How many bands could actually turn the anachronistic “Good evening, San Francisco [roar of the crowd]/ I can’t hear you” call-and-response into something a little more creative? And they had fun doing it, too.

Coldplay :: 07.13 :: Shoreline Amphitheatre

Beginning the show from behind a sheer mesh, the familiar sounds of “Life In Technicolor” brought the already frenzied fans to their feet. When the drape was raised, Martin appeared in a multi-colored military cadet-style jacket and began to lead the crowd through nearly two hours of energetic sing-along moments and anthemic choruses. The now-familiar 1830 painting “Liberty Leading the People” by Eugène Delacroix served as the backdrop for the show, while vintage style televisions onstage displayed video feeds and provided a warm glow behind the band.


A sprinkling of tiny-stickered acronyms adorning road cases backstage was the only hint of Coldplay’s deeply rooted interests in activism, such as their support of Amnesty International, Paul McCartney’s Meat Free Monday and Oxfam’s Make Trade Fair campaign. Other simple but effective visuals were integrated into the atmosphere including giant yellow balloons resurrected from 2005′s “Twisted Logic” tour, which were released for the audience to bat around, creating what resembled a human-powered lava-lamp. Other touches included spherical screens displaying imagery or simple color patterns above the stage, pulsating bands of laser lights as well as millions of confetti butterflies set free to flutter throughout the venue.

Chris Martin – Coldplay :: 07.13 :: Shoreline Amphitheatre

Moving fluidly between the main stage and two mini-stages jutting into the crowd on either side, Coldplay showcased early hits from three previous albums including “Clocks,” “In My Place,” “Yellow,” “Speed of Sound,” “Trouble” as well as songs from 2008′s Viva including the bluesy “Violet Hill,” “Lost!” and the underrated “42,” infused by Champion’s surgically precise percussion. A highlight was an acoustic jam session where the band gathered on a tiny side stage to perform a brilliantly funky version of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” The show ended with a particularly expressive performance of “The Scientist” and then back where it began with “Life in Technicolor II” to draw the evening to a close. Most of the orchestral tracks were performed with a stripped-down treatment, which came across as both bright and unrehearsed. Champion, pulling duty on guitar, drums and vocals, was a potent force as the familiar songs became much more dynamic than their more unassuming recorded counterparts.


Throughout the show, Chris Martin’s playful interaction with the crowd, raucous piano pounding and uncoordinated flailing about added to the spectacle and sense that the band was enjoying themselves at least as much as their audience. The sheer joy and giddy energy bubbling over from the stage was contagious. It was as if everyone in attendance was sharing in the joy of having just discovered the most perfect radio station. The lively atmosphere never seemed to have a down moment and, as fans headed out into the night holding their recession-friendly live CD LeftRightLeftRighLeft (which you can download for FREE at coldplay.com), it seemed as though fans felt like they had gotten their money’s worth. This was a big-time band performing huge songs in a way that few bands can match.


Coldplay :: 07.13.09 :: Shoreline Amphitheatre :: Mountain View, CA
Life In Technicolor, Violet Hill, Clocks, In My Place, Yellow, Glass Of Water, Cemeteries Of London, 42, Fix You, Strawberry Swing, God Put A Smile Upon Your Face, Talk, The Hardest Part, Postcards From Far Away, Viva La Vida, Lost!, Green Eyes, Sitting on the Dock of the Bay / Death Will Never Conquer, Billie Jean, Viva La Vida, Politik, Lovers In Japan, Death And All His Friends

Encore: The Scientist, Life in Technicolor II, The Escapist (outro)

Continue reading for a more pics of Coldplay in California…

Coldplay is on tour now, dates available here.

JamBase | All Yellow
Go See Live Music!


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Man battles mountain lion with chainsaw

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

‘Starving’ mountain lion attacks man camping with his family in Wyoming but he fights back

A man used a chainsaw to fight off an apparently starving mountain lion that attacked him during a camping trip in north-western Wyoming with his wife and two toddlers.

Dustin Britton, a 32-year-old mechanic and ex-US marine from Windsor, Colorado, said he was alone cutting firewood about 100ft from his campsite in the Shoshone national forest when he saw the lion staring at him from some bushes.

Britton said he raised his chainsaw and met the lion head-on as it pounced – a collision he described as feeling like a grown man running directly into him.

“It batted me three or four times with its front paws and as quick as I hit it with that saw it just turned away,” he said.

Wildlife officials said the attack on Sunday evening was highly unusual because mountain lions are generally reclusive by nature. Only eight cases of mountain lions acting aggressively toward humans have been documented in Wyoming over the last decade.

“It’s very, very rare” for lions to attack, said Wyoming game and fish spokesman Warren Mischke. “We’re still trying to investigate why this lion would behave this way.”

The wounded animal retreated after Britton inflicted a gash on its shoulder, leaving him with only a small puncture wound on his forearm.

“You would think if you hit an animal with a chainsaw it would dig right in,” he said. “I might as well have hit it with a hockey stick.”

After Britton’s confrontation, he and his wife, Kirsta, decided to spend the night in their pop-up camper with their two children.

The lion was shot and killed on Monday after it attacked a dog brought in to track it. Authorities say it was in poor physical condition and appeared to be starving.

Tests for rabies and other diseases came up negative, but officials said they were continuing to analyse the animal for other potential diseases.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


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Coal battle

July 13th, 2009 | No Comments

A mountaintop removal mine in West Virginia

Opinion is divided in West Virginia’s coal belt over a controversial mining technique, reports Jean Snedegar for the BBC’s Americana programme.

For years, a battle has been raging in the Appalachian Mountains over a coal-mining practice known as "mountaintop removal mining".

In the last three decades this kind of mining has flattened some 2,500 square miles, and buried more than 1,200 miles of mountain streams.

With a new administration in Washington, the battle over mountaintop removal mining is heating up, most notably in southern West Virginia – and grassroots activists are at the forefront.

Blasting and dumping

Maria Gunnoe, 41, lives with her husband and two children in a tiny community called Bob White, in Boone County, which produces more coal than any other county in the state.

Her family has lived in the area for more than 200 years, and coal mining has been in her family for generations. Two of her brothers are underground miners.

But over the last 10 years, coal has started to threaten her land, and her life. Three different mountaintop removal operations surround Ms Gunnoe’s home, which sits in a steep, narrow hollow. The first mine started in 2001.

"To begin with I heard chainsaws," she tells me.

"When I went back, I seen massive clear-cutting on the mountain behind where I live at. All of the trees and timber that weren’t of value went into the valley behind me."

"I had the opportunity to sit and watch the sun set on this mountain for the last time last year… It’ll never happen again – the mountain has been blasted down now"

Maria Gunnoe
Anti-mountaintop removal activist

Maria Gunnoe, an anti-mountaintop removal mining activist

Shortly afterwards, the mining company began blasting the top off the mountain, and dumping the rock and debris – called "overburden" – that it had removed from above the coal seam into the valley as well.

When she walked up the stream that flows by her house – also her main water source – she noticed it was plugged.

"This is known as a valley fill," Ms Gunnoe explains.

The valley fill contained two ponds full of waste water from the mine.

In 2003, some of that waste water broke through and flooded the narrow valley where Ms Gunnoe lives.

"The flooding devastated our property. In places it was 20ft deep and 60ft wide – almost like a mini-tsunami. It literally washed live standing trees by myself and my family. We were trapped in. We had no way out."

And emergency services had no way in.

In the flood’s wake, Ms Gunnoe and her husband lost five acres of land, the access road to their property and the stream which served as their water supply. Today it contains toxic levels of selenium.

Disappearing communities

Regular blasting continues above her property.

"I have coal dust inside of my computers, my TVs, my refrigerator – everything in my home is inundated by coal dust. My kids shouldn’t have to be breathing this. Our community members shouldn’t have to be breathing this."

Ms Gunnoe’s experiences turned her into an activist and community organiser against mountaintop mining.

Since 2004, she has testified at hearings for mountaintop removal permits and in lawsuits against coal companies.

As a result, she faces regular intimidation from angry miners who feel she is taking away their jobs.

But Ms Gunnoe is eager to show anyone who will listen what the mining has done to the community where she grew up – to the homes, air and water.

From her house, we drive about 10 miles along a narrow, twisty road that used to be populated with small mining communities.

"For every mining job that’s out here, there’s approximately four or five other jobs that are generated by that one miner working"

Roger Horton
Citizens for Coal

Roger Horton, Citizens for Coal

But with mountaintop mines on either side of the road, many of the mountaintops have disappeared.

Pointing to one flattened summit, Ms Gunnoe says: "I had the opportunity to sit and watch the sun set on this mountain for the last time last year – for the last time ever. It’ll never happen again – the mountain has been blasted down now."

Most of the small communities have disappeared too. Residents have been bought out, or driven out by the noise of blasting and large mining machines.

Despite the obvious environmental impact on land and water, many people in West Virginia support mountaintop mining.

Coal brings 20,000 mining-related jobs and earns $8bn (£5bn) a year.

Of that, the state gets more than $400m in taxes – a major source of income in the state.

Job generation

About 25 miles from Maria Gunnoe’s home, Roger Horton drives a lorry at Guyan Mine, owned by St Louis-based Patriot Coal and the sixth largest mountaintop mine in West Virginia.

In January, he started a pro-mountaintop mining group called Citizens for Coal.

"I decided that we should be pro-active," Mr Horton says.

"We should come forward and tell the entire world what it is that we do here and how it benefits America. Over half of the electrical energy that we use in this country is derived from coal."

Mr Horton points out the clear economic benefits: that miners earn two to three times the average wage of the area, and how some former mining sites have been reclaimed.

On one site near his home is a new regional jail. On another, an industrial park, and on a third, a new NASCAR racetrack is being built.

"On top of that, for every mining job that’s out here, there’s approximately four or five other jobs that are generated by that one miner working," Mr Horton says. "And we buy cars, we buy homes, we buy clothing, food – it’s just in the best interest of everybody for us to continue working. It really is."

In late June, Maria Gunnoe and Roger Horton took their battle to Washington – to a Senate sub-committee hearing on "The Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining on Water Quality in Appalachia".

At the hearing, Maria Gunnoe told her story, and Roger Horton and 200 other miners and their families were there to show their support for mountaintop mining.

Two senators – Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland and Republican Lamar Alexander of Tennessee – are planning to introduce legislation that could effectively ban mountaintop removal mining.

This is music to the ears of those like Ms Gunnoe who believe passionately that it should be stopped, and anathema to those who support mountaintop removal mining.

Though Maria Gunnoe’s work recently brought her the 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize for North America – sometimes referred to as the "Green Nobel" – Roger Horton remains confident that mountaintop removal mining will not be stopped any time soon.

"I believe that in the end that we will be victorious, and continue to mine coal," he said.

This article is an adaptation of a feature that was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4′s Americana programme.Americana is broadcast at 1915 BST every Sunday on BBC Radio 4 FM.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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New heights

July 11th, 2009 | No Comments

By Nikki Jecks
BBC World Service

Ten years after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), Lori Schneider decided she wanted to scale the highest peak on every continent.

She achieved this last month by making it to the summit of the world’s most famous mountain, Mount Everest.

Climbing Mt Everest is a challenge for anyone – even if they are young and in the peak of health – but the 53-year-old from Wisconsin is the first person with MS ever to reach the summit.

Ms Schneider, an avid climber, first dreamed of climbing Everest 16 years ago.

But a diagnosis of MS in 1999 was a blow for the former school teacher.

When she first got the news, her initial reaction was to run, rather than climb.

"I ran away, I was fearful of what I thought I was losing in my life," she said.

"I didn’t want people feeling sorry for me. I was doing plenty of that for myself at that point, I was feeling like my physical life was over."

Diagnosis

Ms Schneider first noticed something was wrong when she woke up one morning with numbness in the leg and arm on one side of her body.

"I think the real hardship on Everest is maintaining a positive attitude for two months"

Lori Schneider

Lori Schneider on Everest

The condition progressed to the side of her face, and eventually both sides of her body.

Doctors initial thought she might have had a stroke or be suffering from brain cancer.

It took several months before she was correctly diagnosed.

After overcoming her initial fear and panic, she says the diagnosis actually empowered her to reach for her dreams.

"For 20 years I taught children: ‘Don’t be afraid, take a chance, try’, and when I was doing these climbs trying to climb the highest peak on each continent, I thought I’ll do them all but Everest, because that’s too hard for me."

"When I got diagnosed I thought: ‘Just don’t be afraid to try, do the things in your life that maybe you dreamed about’."

Her aspiration has not been without its costs. Following her dreams meant leaving behind a 20-year teaching career and a 22-year marriage.

Three years ago she climbed the highest peak in North America – Mount McKinley (also known by its native American name of Denali) in Alaska.

For those in the mountaineering know, it is considered the coldest mountain in the world with temperatures overnight capable of dropping to -50C.

After Everest, Asia’s highest peak, and Aconcagua, South America’s highest peak, it is the third highest of the so-called "Seven Summits".

After coming back down she started to loose some of her vision, another symptom of MS. But that did not deter her.

To climb Everest, the cost was financial, rather than physical – she used all her savings, sold her home and took out a loan.

"I’ve been very, very fortunate the last several years. My MS has been pretty stable and quiet in my system," she said.

"I think the real hardship on Everest is maintaining a positive attitude for two months."

The summit

Climbers of Everest face some of the most treacherous conditions imaginable; along with battling hypothermia, there is also altitude sickness, physical exhaustion, and the isolation of being up the mountain for so long.

The Seven Summits

  • Asia – Everest, 8848m
  • South America – Aconcagua, 6959m
  • North America – McKinley, 6194m
  • Africa – Kilimanjaro, 5895m
  • Europe – Elbrus, 5642m
  • Antarctica – Mt Vinson, 4897m
  • Australasia – Carstensz Pyramid, 4884m

Mt Everest

But with the help of letters and photos of friends, family and supporters, she kept herself positive and after more than eight weeks, fighting through a blizzard, she made it to the top.

In achieving her goal, she has joined some of the world’s most accomplished climbers and bested many others.

"It was very surreal, you couldn’t see anything [because of the blizzard], so I couldn’t see the beauty that surrounded me."

"We had to rush down so fast, but I did get a chance to give my father a call and yell: ‘I made it, I made it’."

"It wasn’t until the next morning when I woke up in my tent after climbing for 17 hours the day before, and then all of the sudden I thought: ‘Oh my gosh, I just climbed Mt Everest yesterday!’."

But she says making it to the summit is just a bonus.

The real achievement, she says, is that in coming to terms with MS and the possibility that she may one day loose her mobility, she has been able to face down her fears.

"Who you are inside… that’s what’s important. That will always be there," she said.

"Whether my legs carry me up a mountain or not, I’m still who I am deep inside." </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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