Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
KATMANDU, Nepal, Apr 3, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Serena Brocklebank is beginning a climb to the top of Mount Everest, a feat attempted by her grandfather 70 years ago.
Brocklebank, 38, is a former Outward Bound instructor who applied for her job at the Katmandu embassy with Everest in mind, reported the Telegraph.
She tried the climb in 2004, reaching 26,000 feet, about 3,000 feet higher than her grandfather, but still 3,000 feet short of the summit.
She was stopped by a storm that killed seven and trapped her in a tent for three days.
At 24, Tom Brocklebank was the youngest member of the 1933 expedition, an old Etonian and Cambridge graduate recruited, according to his granddaughter, "on the basis of being a jolly good rower."
In those days hundreds of porters carried crates of equipment, carefully packed by London department stores. That expedition cost $22,600 pounds, roughly the same as a single climber pays to attempt the summit today.
The expense was partly met by a contract to supply official reports of the expedition to The Daily Telegraph. Dispatches were initially sent by postal runner across the mountains of Tibet and Sikkim and wired from Calcutta.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
