85-year-old Woman To Climb Everest

Status: Hoax (mockumentary)
image Mary Woodbridge, from Greenfield, Great Britain, plans to climb Mount Everest, and she's taking her dachsund, Daisy, with her. Some might think her age will prove an obstacle (she's 85), but Mary is very confident in herself and has set herself some real challenges. She writes:

I'm not really into this whole camping thing. So Daisy and I will choose a direct route from the Base Camp to the Top... We have decided to go without Sherpas. Poor guys! I can certainly carry my own food (I have prepared a solid Irish Stew and Power Crunchies!) and the few cans of dog food for Daisy. Since we are training very hard, we don't expect to need additional oxygen on our ascent. (There are no oxygen masks for Daisy anyway!)

Yes, Mary's Everest expedition is just a joke. Her site was created by Mammut, a seller of mountain sports gear. However, EverestNews.com reports that a 74-year-old Japanese woman really is planning to climb Everest. And they swear it's not a hoax.

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Posted on Tue Mar 07, 2006


Comments

Climbing Everest has actually become rather routine now, so this hoax isn't really as outlandish as it sounds at first. People have climbed Mt. Everest without oxygen tanks, people have climbed it all alone, someone who was blind has climbed it, a 15-year-old kid and a 70-year-old man have climbed it, a man with only one foot has climbed it. . .there have even been people climb it to get married on the summit. It's all very commercialised and touristy now. These days, there's not really any reason why anybody can't get to the top, as long as they're well-prepared and can find somebody willing to help drag them and their equipment along.

That's not to say that it's not still dangerous, of course. For about every ten people who have made it to the top, somebody hasn't ever made it back down to the bottom again. But there have been something like several thousand people climb it by now.
Posted by Accipiter  on  Tue Mar 07, 2006  at  11:16 PM
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