At 26, Rob Mortell is the youngest Irish person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
Rob is from Limerick and works as a trainee accountant at KPMG. In 2012, Rob set out to climb Mount Everest, backed and sponsored by KPMG. KPMG and Concern have a partnership that supports charitable projects in poor regions.
The project that Rob fundraised for saw the introduction of solar-powered panels in a school in Tibet.
The expedition required four years of training.
- In 2013 Rob climbed the Matterhorn in Switzerland.
- 2014 he climbed Denali, which is North America’s highest mountain.
- Finally, Rob climbed Ama Dablam in Nepal last October. It was a successful expedition and he was able to raise the KPMG flag on the summit.
He said his family ‘weren’t thrilled’ about him going but supported him the whole way. He wasn’t discouraged by stories of climbers getting lost or dying.
“You inform yourself. I had my head screwed on and really researched everything.”
He said he chose his route carefully and looked at the statistical chances of an injury on different routes.
Everest:
- Rob left for Tibet on March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day. He began his descent in April.
- A check-in GPS tracker enabled the public to see Rob’s progress as he scaled Everest. From base camp to the peak, the public could see his progress which was posted on his Facebook page.
- During his expedition, all food was canned and water consisted of melted snow with chlorine tablets to kill bacteria. He says the first food he bought when he reached the shop in Tibet was an apple, two bananas and a bottle of water.
- “I was on the Northside (Tibet), instead of the South. A lot of the horror stories took place in the South.”
