CORE DUO SUCCEED IN EVEREST CLIMB CHALLENGE

Ian Taylor and Graham Kinch, two congregants of CORE church in Dublin have succeeded in their attempts to conquer Everest in aid of the Fields of Life Charity. Kinch was forced to turn around just above The Balcony at 8600m, finally giving in to a torn chest muscle that had plagued him for weeks. Taylor however went on to reach the summit (8850m) at 12:02am Irish time on Friday 23rd May. In doing so he has become the youngest Irish man and the first Kildareman to stand on the top of the world.

"We've been thinking and planning for this trip for over 2 years "said Kinch, "I'm disappointed I didn't get to the top but we always said if we got one of us to the top that would be a success. On summit night I knew I was running low on energy and whilst I might have had enough to get to the top I wouldn't have had enough to get back down. I think it's better to know your limits than to be shown them, and unfortunately in this year alone Everest has shown several people their limits."

The two braved the dark, high winds, and temperatures of -35 C on their summit push. A little over 8 gruelling hours after leaving the South Col, Taylor found himself on the summit.

The two set themeselves the target of climbing four mountains on four continents in one year in aid of the Irish charity Fields of Life. They plan to raise €85,000, or €1 for every foot they climbed during the year. They began their year by climbing Mt. Blanc last June, followed by Kilimanjaro in September with a visit to the Kitandwe school project in Uganda that they are hoping to raise the funds for in partnership with Fields of Life. They then went on to climb Aconcagua in January and now Mt Everest. "We may have completed the climbing side of the project" said Taylor, "but we are only half way through our fundraising. We will spend most of the summer continuing to fundraise and people can still donate on-line at www.everest2008.ie".

"When we visited the village last September we were struck by two things" said Kinch, "firstly how welcoming they were towards us, especially since we were strangers, and white ones at that, being the first white men to the village. Secondly we were struck by how content they were with what we would consider to be so little. That was when we decided we wanted to work with them, not only to build the school but also a well so that the children could enjoy running water."

"With less than 20 Irish people to have summitted Everest, and less than 2000 people in the world to have summitted via the South East Ridge" said Taylor, "I feel proud to have completed this challenge, but I know that I could only have done it with the support and prayers of my many friends and family. I am now excited about completing the second part of this challenge in raising the funds for the Kitandwe School Project and I know that I will continue to need the prayers and support of friends and family in doing this as well".

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