Mark Inglis

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Mark Joseph Inglis (born September 27, 1959) is a mountaineer, researcher, winemaker and motivational speaker. He holds a degree in Human Biochemistry from Lincoln University, New Zealand, and has conducted research in leukemia. He won a silver medal at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games. He currently resides in Hanmer Springs, New Zealand with his wife Anne and their three children.

Inglis began work as a professional mountaineer in 1979 as a search and rescue mountaineer for Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. In November of 1982, Inglis and climbing partner Philip Doole were stuck in an ice cave high on Aoraki/Mount Cook for 14 days due to an intense blizzard. The ultimate rescue of the two climbers was a major media event in New Zealand. Both men's legs became badly frost bitten while awaiting rescue. Following Inglis' rescue, both his legs were amputated beneath the knee. He returned to Mt. Cook in 2002 and summited successfully on January 7 of that year, after a previous attempt was thwarted by problems with his leg stumps. The summit assault in January 2002 was documented by the film No Mean Feat: The Mark Inglis Story.

In 2003, Inglis received the New Zealand Order of Merit as an Officer in recognition of his services to disabled people. On September 27, 2004, he successfully summitted Cho Oyu with three others, becoming only the second double amputee to summit a mountain greater than 8000 metres in height.

On May 15, 2006, after 40 days of climbing Inglis became the first ever double amputee to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. While acclimatizing at 6,400 metres, a fixed-line anchor failed resulting in Inglis falling. In the fall, he broke one of his carbon fiber prosthetic legs in half. It was temporarily repaired with duct tape while a spare was brought up from base camp.

While ascending Inglis came upon a distressed British climber David Sharp but continued pushing towards the summit. Sharp subsequently perished. Inglis has been criticised for this decision, including by Sir Edmund Hillary who said he would have abandoned any attempt at the summit to help a fellow climber. Inglis has dismissed the criticism by saying that the decision was actually made by expedition leader Russell Brice, who was at the base camp. He also stated that "trouble is at 8,500 metres it's extremely difficult to keep yourself alive, let alone anyone else alive." Some other climbers have agreed with this assessment claiming that close to the summit there is little that can be done for a seriously ill person. However, Phil Ainslie, a scientist and mountaineer at Otago University, has said that it might have been possible to revive Sharp with bottled oxygen and get him to safety.

In an e-mailed statement to the Associated Press on June 10, the expedition leader Russell Brice contradicted comments by Inglis by saying that he only knew David Sharp was in distress when his team contacted him by radio during their descent [1].

As of July 2006, Inglis retracted his claim that he was ordered to continue his ascent after informing Brice of a climber in distress, blaming the extreme conditions at altitude for the uncertaintity in his memory. [2] [3]

[edit] Books authored

Inglis has authored three books:

No Mean Feat documents his entrapment and rescue from Mt. Cook, his successful summit of the same mountain in 2002, and his efforts in the Paralympics
To the Max: a Teen Reader's Version of No Mean Feat
Off The Front Foot offers views on coping with positive and negative aspects of life.