Atlantica - 01.06.2002, Page 41

There are no more mountains left to
climb for outdoor adventurer Haraldur
Örn Ólafsson. On 16 May, the 30-year-old
lawyer scaled Mt. Everest, becoming the
youngest, and the fastest, human being to
trek across both the North Pole and South
Pole, and climb the Seven Summits – the
highest mountains on each of the seven
continents.
Many climbers have set out on such an
excursion, all but four have failed. So how
does the record-setting mountaineer feel
about joining this exclusive club that now
totals only five climbers?
“It’s still difficult to understand that it’s
over,” he says from inside Hús Málarans,
one of Reykjavík’s many minimalist cafes.
“I’ve been so tired it’s hard to know what
I’ve accomplished.”
As trite as it sounds, every journey begins
with that first step. Haraldur Örn
embarked on his journey over four years
ago when he, along with his father Ólafur
Örn Haraldsson, and his good friend
Ingthór Bjarnason, began skiing from
Patriot Hills, located at the edge of the
Ronne ice shelf, towards the South Pole.
Standing between them and their goal
was 1,100 km of frozen nothingness. The
trio reached the bottom of the Earth on
New Year’s Day, 1998.
Back then, Haraldur Örn stirred about fol-
lowing up this ice adventure with a trip to
the North Pole. After all, the magnetic pull
of the north is strong for a polar explorer
– it’s the natural next step. So two and a
half years later, following a hazardous
two-month trek that saw his polar sidekick
Ingthór airlifted off the ice after only 17
days due to severe frostbite, Haraldur Örn
found himself alone at the North Pole.
“When I reached the pole, I got a strange
feeling,” he recounted, after returning to
Iceland with a hero’s welcome that includ-
ed kudos from both Iceland’s prime minis-
ter and president. “I realised that this was
the end. I didn’t have to walk anymore.”
But it was only the beginning. Haraldur
Örn is a man with a bit of a wild side. He
enjoys stripping away the excess baggage
that we all collect and shedding the mod-
ern comforts of home for the natural
sounds of the frontier. So settling back
down in the hypermodern city of
Reykjavík no doubt left Haraldur Örn feel-
ing a bit restless. In other words, he got
the itch, and began imagining the views
from Denali (Mt. McKinley), Elbrus,
Kilimanjaro, Kosciusko, Mt. Vinson,
Aconcagua and Mt. Everest: the Seven
Summits, the mountaineering grand slam.
“I’ve always been a climber, so the high-
est point on each continent is an interest-
ing concept,” he said, before setting off
on his world-wide climb.
With an urge to “climb high” and com-
mune with nature, Haraldur Örn began his
quest for the Seven Summits just one
year and 11 days after standing on the
North Pole. His first stop: Denali, North
America’s highest peak. His last stop: Mt.
Everest, the apex of all mountains, rising
8,848 m into thin air.
Edward Weinman: How did you feel when
you reached the summit of Mt. Everest?
Haraldur Örn Ólafsson: It’s amazing.
You’re looking down on 8,000 m peaks.
The highest peaks in the world and you’re
looking down on them. It’s like being in
space. With this mask, sucking on oxygen,
you feel like an astronaut.
But you’re also worried, because it’s not
over. The most dangerous part of climb-
ing Everest is going down. That’s when
people make mistakes. A lot of people
don’t make it back down, so you have to
keep your concentration even though
you’re exhausted.
EW: How many climbers were with you
when you reached the summit?
HÓ: Today, Everest is a very popular
mountain and the season is very short so
you have a lot of people attempting the
summit on the same day. The day I sum-
mitted, 54 people reached the summit
from both the north and the south sides.
This includes all the Westerners and
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