WORLD : Udall’s Son Scales Third-Tallest Peak as Oxygen Fails Partner
Mark Udall, son of Rep. Morris K. Udall (D-Ariz.), scaled the 28,169-foot-high Mt. Kangchenjunga, the world’s third-tallest peak, by himself after his partner had to turn back, officials said today.
Udall, 41, the leader of a U.S. mountain climbing organization, reached the summit from the mountain’s southwest face on May 15 after a 12-hour, 45-minute climb from his team’s fourth camp at 25,600 feet, the Ministry of Tourism said.
Udall, who is program director of an Outward Bound school in Denver, and the leader of his nine-member team, Robert Gustake, 32, of Ojai, Calif., began climbing from the camp together. But Gustake, a school teacher, was forced to abandon the effort after his oxygen tank ran empty at 26,900 feet.
The peak lies on the border of Nepal and India’s Sikkim state.
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