Frenchman Fails Everest ‘Dash’
A lone Frenchman attempting the fastest ascent of Mt. Everest gave up today, 330 feet below the summit of the world’s highest mountain.
Exhaustion and bad weather forced Marc Batard, 36, to turn back 23 hours after beginning his climb from a base camp at 17,400 feet, the Nepal Tourism Ministry said. The climber, a mountain guide from Megeve, France, near Mt. Blanc, was not using oxygen during his ascent. Earlier he told reporters in Katmandu that his goal was to climb from the base camp to the 29,028-foot summit in less than 24 hours. The most rapid ascent of Everest was by two Swiss climbers who scaled 19,200 feet in 38 hours in 1986.
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