Wow, what an amazing day! I was impressed with how you responded to Paul today. You had so many questions (over 100) and you remembered so much from the work we have done in class. Paul said that if you wanted to ask any more questions or just comment about today, to leave them on this post and he will reply over the next few weeks.
I have created a ‘mountains’ page as there are so many photos from today and from the past few weeks when you have been building your mountains.
What an inspirational day. I hope each of you have taken something that Paul said and thought about it with regard to the challenges you face in life every day. Hopefully, you can now tackle those challenges and as Paul said, ‘Climb your own Everest!’
Comments on: "Paul Deegan" (11)
This is a question to Paul.
What other mountains have you climbed? Which was your favourite?
this is a question to paul deegan!!
i might try and climb mount everst when im older.
what tips can you give me?
thanks paul.
question for paul have you climbed mount killimanjaro
this is a question for paul! what other moutains have you climbed other than everest and what was there tempeture and did you ever get frost bite???????
Hi Year 6! You all asked some terrific questions when we met last month. These questions are really good too. So here are my answers…
1. Hi King,
I’ve climbed quite a few mountains. Some of the peaks that stand out for me are Mount Fuji in Japan, Cerro Aconcagua in Argentina, and Mont Blanc on the border of France and Italy.
A few years ago I led an expedition to a previously unexplored range of mountains in the Pamir mountains in Central Asia. The range can be found on a map on the border of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and China. The team made ascents of five previously unclimbed peaks. More people have stood on the moon than on these summits. This expedition was very special.
2. Hello Help!
So, you want to climb Everest! Here’s three pieces of advice I would give:
A. Enjoy the journey
Before you climb Everest you’re going to want to climb a lot of other peaks to get enough experience. So pick mountains that will improve your climbing skills, and which are enjoyable adventures. That way, you’ll enjoy climbing every mountain and climbing Everest will be the icing on the cake.
B. Go with friends
The more climbs you go on, the more friends you will make. And going on expeditions with friends is really special as you will be able to share unique experiences with people you really like.
C. Remember that getting down is as important as getting up.
It’s really easy to focus on getting to the summit. But it’s just as important to get down the mountain safely so that you can tell everyone about it! I think it’s braver to turn back before you get to the summit if you don’t think that you can get there and back safely, than to just keep going up.
3. Hi Sean,
Yes I have climbed Kilimanjaro! I climbed it on January 1st 2000. Kilimanjaro is a very interesting mountain because it is like a jungle at the bottom and is snow-covered at the top.
Some people climb Kilimanjaro in a less than a week but many of them get sick from the high altitude because they go up too quickly.
I climbed Point Lenana on Mount Kenya (just over the border in Kenya) the week before I climbed Kilimanjaro so that I wouldn’t get sick, and it worked.
4. Hey Bubbles,
The coldest peak I have ever been on is the highest mountain in North America. It is called Mount McKinley. It is also known as Denali. I’ll let you find it on a map (clue: it is in the U.S. state of Alaska).
OK, have you found it? Good. You’ll notice that it is a long way north. In fact, it is so far north that it is permanently covered in snow. When I went there, the team I was with got caught in a really cold storm. It was so cold that my thermometer broke! The temperature went down to minus 40 degrees. Minus 40 is an interesting temperature because it is the same in both Fahrenheit and Celsius. At minus 40, the enamel on your teeth can crack. So we didn’t talk much.
But it wasn’t just cold. It was also windy. We experienced windspeeds of 100 mph (160 kph). So when you added the temperature and the wind together, it felt like -100 degrees Fahrenheit (-73 degrees Celsius). I wore a lot of clothes to protect myself from these low temperatures.
We spent a lot of time living and sleeping in a snowcave waiting for the storm to pass. (A snowcave is a large cave dug into the snow using shovels. A snowcave takes a long time to make, but it is much warmer, stronger and more comfortable than a tent in severe conditions.)
On that expedition, I got mild frostbite, called frostnip, on all my fingers and toes. The tips of my fingers and toes went white and hard. Weeks later they started to peel and revealed new pink skin. It was a bit like a snake shedding its skin. It took five months before the feeling in my big toes came back.
Since then, I have always had to be extra-careful to protect my fingers and toes from the cold. Do you remember the big black mittens and those huge red boots I brought along to school? That is the clothing I had to wear on Everest to protect my fingers and toes.
I hope that everyone in Year 6 succeeds in achieving their ambitions in 2009.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Paul.
thanks paul for the advise