The Saint
Full interview with Geordie Stewart
The Saint: So, to start off, what is the Seven summits challenge?
Geordie Stewart: It's climbing the highest mountain on every continent. It consists of Aconcagua, in Argentina, and then mountains in Russia, Alaska, Everest (obviously in Asia), Antarctica, Papua New Guinea, and Kilimanjaro, in Africa.
TS: And you've done a few of them so far, right?
GS: I've done four, yeah. I did three between school and university I took a year out and I climbed in South America in January, 2008. And then went to Kilimanjaro by myself in May, 2008, and then went to Russia in August.
TS: What was it like to climb Kilimanjaro alone?
GS: Well, I summitted it on my nineteenth birthday. I wasn't actually planning on going alone. I was in Thailand at the time with a friend, and we were supposed to get a ferry somewhere, and he said, "This is ridiculous, Geordie. Just go off back home and go climb Kili!" So I got a flight out to Africa by myself, found a guide out there, and thought all right, lets go and wander into the hills, and I summitted it on my nineteenth birthday which was fantastic.
TS: Was that planned?
GS: Well, it was. I was in Thailand in April, and was going to climb Kili, so I booked my flight, and thought "Right. It's a month till my birthday. I can work for a couple of weeks, and then hopefully I can summit on my birthday." And it worked out fine I didn't have any illness or anything and it went well. So that was encouraging. And then in August I went to Russia, to climb Mount Elbrus, which is the highest mountain in Europe.
And that was a bizarre experience because Russia and Georgia had their conflict last August.
TS: That was the conflict over South Ossetia.
GS: Yeah. And the day I left was the day that that kicked off. So they called me the day before, to say the trip was still going ahead. And I was like "What do you mean? Why would it not?" And they said, "Well-read the newspaper." And I was like, "OK, shit." The mountain is about two miles away from the Georgian border. So after we summitted, we were out for this celebratory sort of trek around the local area. And we were walking down a valley, just three of us strolling along wearing sunglasses and t-shirts. Then we suddenly looked behind us to find three AK-47s pointed in our faces, and someone saying "Hands up." And we were wondering what was going on, and they told us we were about a mile away from the Georgian border, and this was the main pass that people used to cross it. I was like, "Oh Christ." That was probably the most exciting part of the trip other than that it went without troubles.
And then I started here at St Andrews in September, 2008, and after my first year I went to Alaska in June to climb Denali. Which was absolutely phenomenal.
It seemed ill-fated, because I got tonsillitis two weeks before I left, and then my grandmother died the day before I left. So it really wasn't going well. But Alaska is really remarkable place. As a state, its awesome. Its odd because we went from a local town where, you know, they're selling Starbucks and Coca Cola and we got a plane to the glacier. So you land on the snow, and suddenly you go from this commercialized society to basically three tents, with absolute wilderness all around you. And it was an unsupported trip, so it was just my team (which was myself, three guides and eight others), completely unsupported. So it was only us and our sledges used to carry group equipment and food. We were roped together in three teams all the time to protect us from the crevasses on the lower glaciers. So it was a real team ethic, which was a change from Kilimanjaro where I was by myself the whole time. This one, you're suddenly a real team, and you're carrying all your food the whole time. But it was a fantastic trip. Just a stunning place. And we all made it to the top.
TS: What made you decide to try to climb all seven?
GS: I suppose I started reading about it when I was 17. I was revising for my exams, and my dad gave me a book by a chap called Bear Grylls. Grylls was actually at my old school, and he gave a talk there, when I was about 9, about climbing Everest. And I'd love to say that inspired me at the age of 9, and maybe it did subconsciously. But my dad gave me his book when I was 17, and I started reading it. And I thought, "Wow. This is what I want to do. I want to climb Everest." And at the end, someone who had done his trip said he had gone on to climb the seven summits. So I obviously investigated this, and it seemed like a great step towards climbing Everest. So I was revising 45 minutes for my exams, and then allowing myself 15 minutes to analyse these mountains and make plans. Like figuring out when the best times were to climb and the best routes to take. And one of the plans I made was to aim to have my 21st birthday on Everest. It's ironic now that its happening. So after I started thinking about climbing the seven summits, I tried to figure out the best way to go about doing it. So I booked my trip to South America actually without my parents knowing that summer. Then I slowly let them into this crazy psychology that I had that I wanted to climb mountains. And I'm not quite sure why they let me do it, because I didn't have much experience, and it was the highest mountain in the Southern Hemisphere. So I wandered off to South America.
TS: And you got to the top on your first attempt?
GS: I did, yeah. I summitted it in February. It was the most incredible feeling. For me, one of the questions I often get asked is, "why do you want to climb mountains?" It seems a bizarre thing to climb for weeks and weeks just to get to the top for about an hour. But I was on the top of that one and there was this feeling that every person in the Southern Hemisphere is at a lower point than you are. It's a pretty awesome feeling.
So it was a good trip, and a completely new experience for me. One of the things about all of the trips is the people you meet on them. Its a completely diverse bunch. And you're doing something like living in a tent, which is something I'd never done before.
To acclimatize, you're also drinking a lot of water. So you have a cup of tea, and it takes about 45 minutes to melt the snow. And then you drink the tea for about ten minutes, and then you have to melt more snow and wait another 45 minutes. And you're doing all these different activities that you've never done before.
TS: Had you done any mountaineering before? What did you do to train?
GS: Well, I actually did all of my training in Scotland. Before I went I went to Argentina I did a technical training course for a few weeks, just to get the skills. I had always been interested in the hills, and dad grew up in Scotland, so he had taken me up to Ben Nevis and things when I was 11 or 12 years old. So the outside had always appealed to me. But never on such a grand scale.
TS: Speaking of Bear Grylls, is it true he's now heard of your seven summits attempt?
GS: Yeah, well it turns out he's friends with my school Geography teacher. And now, because Everest is so much more expensive than any of the mountains I've done before, to get people interested its good to get a public figure behind it. He seemed like a really good person to start. So, I got in contact with him to ask him about tips about oxygen preparation. Then I was slightly ambitious and asked him if he could give me a public endorsement or anything like that. So now he's supporting the trip.
As is the Principal, Dr Louise Richardson. Both of them publicly support it, which is encouraging.
But for me that was really amazing, getting the person who had inspired me to climb to now say I wish him all the best. That was a really good feeling.
TS: How much more challenging is Everest going to be than the previous climbs?
GS: Well, you only need oxygen above about 8,000 meters, so I've never had to use that before. Above 8,000 meters is called the death zone, which is an encouraging term.
A lot of people say Denali is harder, because of the physical toll, and because you don't have the support that you do on Everest. But Everest is what I've dreamed about, so that's my aim.
I'm going to be breathing through an oxygen tank for about 1,000 metres. It doesn't give you a huge flow rate. But there's one section called the Second Step on the route Im doing, which is the Northeast Ridge route for that you increase your flow rate a lot. The general amount of oxygen you get from the tank isn't that great, but you need it. Very few people have actually summitted without oxygen.
TS: What are you doing to prepare?
GS: Well, I've been training since Christmas for Alaska. I'm still keeping fit, going to the gym and staying in shape. One of the things I did for Alaska was I bought a little childrens sledge and went down to West Sands, and tugged it along the beach with a girlfriend sitting on top of it. Which was great training, and quite good fun. Got some very odd looks. I'll probably do it again in February or March, before Everest.
TS: Does it feel daunting?
GS: Well the success rate is 30-40%, or something - its not that high. In Alaska, Denali was about 50%, because that was essentially weather-dependent. And Everest is as well, but the altitude is what affects you most. I've been lucky so far and I think it is luck in terms of the way your body copes with altitude; you can be as fit as you possibly want and then go to a certain altitude and suddenly your body can't cope. Its also something that actually gets easier as you get older. Someone who is 30 or 40 years old can cope with altitude better than someone my age, because at a young age you're still maturing. But at the moment I'm all right with altitude. I hope I can use my determination and stubbornness to get by.
TS: And now you hope to become the youngest Brit to complete the seven summits?
GS: I'll be the youngest Brit to do the seven summits, yeah. I'll also be the first St Andrews student to do it and the first to do Everest, I think. It's quite exciting.
TS: And you're raising money for charity in the process.
GS: Yeah. The charity is called Help for Heroes. It supports wounded servicemen and women, which I think is more important now than any other recent time. The charity originated because old soldiers who came back without limbs felt embarrassed to go to a public swimming pool, so they originally just started raising money for a swimming pool for wounded servicemen. Its since developed quite a lot, and they've raised a lot of money. The stories of injured soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan having a lot of their hopes and dreams ended because of their injuries are powerful. For me, I'm very fortunate: I'm fit, Im 20 years old, doing what I've dreamt of doing. I find it sad that other people cant do that. This charity is a very good one.
TS: So how are you raising the funds?
GS: The cost of my Everest trip is about 20,000 pounds - that's how much I'm trying to raise. Then I'm raising money for Help for Heroes on top of that. All of my other trips I've funded by myself through working seven days a week. But with Everest, obviously I don't have that kind of money. So I'm looking for corporate sponsorship, both for this climb and others, and donations from friends and family friends who have been very generous. For Help for Heroes, I want to raise as much money and publicity as I can for them.
TS: So what comes next after Everest?
GS: Well, there are two more mountains to go after Everest. One is called the Carstensz Pyramid, which is in Papua New Guinea. Its not that hard of a climb, its more of a rock climb. What's bizarre is it used to be banned from use because of cannibalism in the area. Now its open to be climbed again. And the last one is called Mount Vinson, which is in Antarctica. But it's all dependent on the costs. If I get enough to do Everest, those cost almost the same again, which requires a lot of financial backing. Ideally I'd like to do them in 2010 as well, but well see.
After that? I don't know, the more you read about things, the more you want to do them. There's something called the Explorers Grand Slam I think, which is the seven summits and then the North and South Pole. That's something that would be absolutely incredible. I think something like less than 15 people have ever done it.
K2 is also something I'd love to do. The mountaineer's mountain.
TS: The second-highest mountain in the world
GS: Yeah, the second highest in the world, and very technically tough. A lot of challenges its a great climb. But you don't want to attempt that until after you've done Everest.
K2 is a real aim, I suppose. But first well see how Everest goes.
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