Double amputee scales Everest

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A New Zealand man whose legs were severed below the knees after suffering frostbite more than two decades ago became the first double amputee to reach the summit of the world’s tallest mountain on Monday.

Mark Inglis, who has spent 40 days on Mt. Everest, set out in his bid to reach the peak on his prosthetic legs with an early morning start in perfect weather from Camp 4 – less than 1,500 feet below the 29,035-foot summit.

“Mark definitely made it; back at Camp 4. They are in high spirits,” Inglis’ wife, Anne, wrote in a text message to supporters.

Inglis, 47, had to repair one of his carbon-fiber prosthetic limbs after it snapped in a fall at about 21,000 feet.

The original expedition split into two groups, with four members of the first group reaching the top earlier in the day, Anne Inglis said. Inglis and his group of 20, including Sherpa guides, were in the second party.

The climber, a mountain guide, had both legs severed just below the knees after suffering frostbite when trapped by storms while climbing New Zealand’s highest peak, Mount Cook, in 1982.

A Paralympic cycling silver medallist, winemaker and father of three, Inglis climbed 26,906-foot Cho Oyu in Tibet in 2004.

Inglis said earlier that he would be spurred on by the fact the expedition is expected to raise several hundred thousand dollars for a Cambodian center that provides rehabilitation for land mine amputees, polio victims and others.