Climber Shares Mt. Everest Summit Stories at Library

Craig John helped kick-off “Novel Destinations” and impressed attendees with his worldwide climbing experiences.

It may have been the first day of summer and nearly eighty degrees outside, but there was plenty of snow and ice on display in the meeting room of the Westborough Public Library.   

On Tuesday, June 21, professional mountain guide Craig John transported an audience of adults and children on a journey to the world’s highest mountain peaks. The voyage concluded at the summit of Mt. Everest.

Donna Martel, adult services librarian, told Westborough Patch, “We thought he was the perfect fit with the Novel Destinations adult summer reading program,” adding that “his presentation will offer residents an opportunity to travel somewhere they may never have the opportunity to go.”

John, who has been guiding since 1987, began his two-hour multimedia presentation with a slideshow featuring various mountains that he summited prior to Everest, including Rainier, Cho Oyu, Kilimanjaro and Denali.

John described how he spent four years preparing for his first Everest ascent. “I just took a picture of Everest, slapped it on my Stairmaster and went nuts.” 

On a more serious note, John cautioned that climbers should prepare intensely for an Everest summit attempt. “I’d suggest local mountain and ice climbing, followed by Rainier or McKinley and finally trying a Himalayan Peak other than Everest to gauge how you manage with the altitude." 

Emphasizing the very real dangers of climbing Everest, John’s presentation included a DVD entitledSummit of Dreams which documented a tragedy from John’s first Everest experience:  One survivor lost his toes to frostbite and his climbing partner lost his life just after descending from the summit.

The presentation continued with John’s first-hand account of his climb up the North Ridge of Everest, which he first summited in 1994 and again in 1998, 2001 and 2003.

John noted that it takes six-to-eight weeks to summit Everest due to altitude acclimation, continuing, “It took us seven hours to make the final ascent and we spent only fifteen minutes on top.” 

He called the summit “spectacular” and told the crowd that climbers could see the curvature of the earth with the naked eye. Pointing to a folding table in the corner of the meeting room, John estimated “the summit is about the size of that table. You have to be careful since it’s not a place you want to fall.”

Once they reach the top, John noted that climbers are only half-way through, joking that “ascent is optional. Descent is mandatory. If you don’t get down, it doesn’t count.”

Four-year old April Zheng, asked John, “Why did you climb the big mountain?”  Amid laughter, John replied, “I just wanted to see if I could do it.”

John, who lives in Maine and teaches rock and ice climbing in New Hampshire, wrapped up his presentation by telling the crowd, “Now that I have a seven-year old daughter, I’m not willing to risk my life on Everest again.  There are other places I want to climb and I am also working on a book on climbing Everest written from a guide’s perspective.”