WORLD TRIATHLON COMES TO AN END
From the English Channel to Mount Everest, Wittmack Finishes
8,000-mile Endurance Event On Top
EVEREST BASE CAMP, NEPAL: Adventurer Charlie Wittmack is the only American to have climbed Mount Everest and swum the English Channel. Last week, he raised the bar.
Over the past 11-months, Wittmack has attempted to complete what the BBC has described as the “toughest human endurance event ever conceived” and ESPN has called “the future of ultra endurance sports.”
Wittmack’s “World Triathlon” is an 8,000-mile transcontinental triathlon that began with a 250-mile swim from the shallow waters of the River Thames in England through Oxford and London, then across the English Channel to France. From France the journey continued by bicycle across Europe and Asia to Kathmandu. The triathlon finished with a hike into the Himalaya and a climb to the summit of Mount Everest.
During his epic journey, Wittmack was stung by jellyfish, hospitalized with amoebic dysentery, hit by a car on a rural highway in Kazakhstan, and suffered cerebral and pulmonary edemas in Tibet. “I was forced to fight for every mile, every day,” Wittmack said.
Compared to the many challenges that Wittmack had to overcome during his journey to Nepal, his ascent of Everest proved to be far less problematic. Wittmack reached the summit on Friday at 10:45 am after spending only six days climbing on the mountain. Wittmack climbed alone to the 29,035 ft. summit and then descended more than 12,000 feet to Everest Base Camp to rejoin his team in one last endurance feat.
“He’s the American Sherpa,” said Nima Sherpa, one of Wittmack’s local teammates. “It’s incredible!”
Visit Charlie’s website at www.theworldtri.com for more amazing stories.