Mark Inglis - On Top Of The World

Imagine, you are 23 years old, trapped in an ice cave for 14 days by a sub-zero blizzard on the summit of New Zealand’s highest peak.

- Steph Zajkowski

You are starving and freezing to death. You wake up in hospital to find that you have lost both legs below the knees due to frostbite. What do you do next?

If you are Mark Inglis, you climb Mount Everest, of course.

The first ever double amputee to scale Mt Everest says life is for him is all about participation and he believes we are all here to make a difference. New Zealand’s Mark Inglis made history when he reached the ‘roof of the world’ in May, 2006. While many would see this as the ‘pinnacle’ of achievement, for Inglis, Everest is one of many accomplishments in a life full of conquests.

Born in September 1959, Mark had a passion and love of the outdoors since childhood. In 1979, he began work as a professional search and rescue mountaineer for Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. In November 1982, Mark and his climbing partner Philip Doole became trapped near the summit of Mt Cook in atrocious weather, a storm that was to last 13-and-a-half days. The resulting stay in the ice cave - now known as Middle Peak Hotel - resulted in both men's legs becoming badly frost bitten. The rescue of the two climbers was a major media event in New Zealand, with the country gripped by the dramatic incident. When rescued, Inglis and Doole were near starved and close to death. Following the rescue, both Mark’s legs were amputated below the knee. He was 23 years old.

We caught up with Mark to see how he has coped surviving survival...

Mt Cook - at what point did you realize you were in serious trouble?