Andrew Brash gave up his Everest quest to save a fellow climber 2 years ago. Now, he's finally accomplished his lifelong dream.
Two years ago, Calgary high school teacher Andrew Brash was a mere 200 meters from completing his lifelong dream of reaching Mount Everest’s summit when he and his team came across a fellow climber lying on the ground. The man, Australian climber Lincoln Hall, had become extremely ill earlier that day, and his own group had mistakenly left him for dead. As it turned out, Hall was still alive - but barely.
Without a second thought, Brash and his group turned back, carrying Hall all the way down the mountain in order to find help. Hall managed to survive, and was very grateful for the assistance from the group of mountaineers. Brash never regretted his decision not to reach the summit: “It’s still there if I want to try again,” he once said.
And last week, that’s exactly what he did. On May 22nd, the 39-year-old climber finally reached the summit of Mount Everest - and promptly updated his blog as soon as he returned to a base camp: “I almost can’t believe I’m saying this, but I am: at 7 a.m. this morning [local time], a small group of us summited Everest!”
“I’m just so happy for him that he’s reached his goal and is safe,” his wife, Jennifer, told CBC News. “He’ll be a happy guy when he gets back.”