Former Celebrity Apprentice star Emma Jane Quinlan has set her sights on conquering Everest.
The new mother welcomed baby Isla 12 weeks ago and told how she hasn’t given up on her dream of rising to the summit, despite the recent spate of Irish deaths.
Last month Everest claimed the lives of two Irish men; Kevin Hynes from Galway fell to his death whilst attempting to scale the world’s highest peak from the Tibetan side.
Trinity professor Seamus Lawless fell 200m from the ledge during high winds.
Former snake charmer Emma Jane started climbing over a decade ago and trained for two solid years to reach her goal of climbing Everest before she fell ill.
Emma, 35, told the Irish Mirror: “It’s something I still want to do before I’m 40.
“People die on Everest every year and the traffic thing on Everest isn’t a new issue.”
Last month pictures emerged from the Everest summit of a traffic queue of climbers waiting for their turn to reach the peak.
“I think they grant too many licences, I know for a fact there’s a lot of people climbing who have the money to climb and don’t have the experience to do it.
“Just because Everest is the tallest mountain in the world it’s not necessarily the most technical.
“Altitude sickness is a big problem and the weather is extremely interchangeable.
“People die on Kilimanjaro too due to altitude sickness, people think it’s a walk but its not,” Emma said.
The climbing enthusiast cautioned against inexperienced climbers taking on Everest.
She added: “I think you need to have other peaks under your belt which you can prove that you’ve done.
“You need to adapt to some technical levels and peaks that aren’t as high in the likes of the Alps.
“I wouldn’t have done Everest without doing an 8000 peak first, that’s why my costs were going to be so much more to do it, about 60K.
“But now it’s not solely my decision because I have my finance Jonathon and baby Isla to consider.”
Everest can catch out experienced climbers too, she noted.
She explained: “Mountaineer Pat Falvey has done Everest a few times and he was pulled off once because he got altitude sickness, but he’s also got to the top of it before.”
The mother-of-one admitted her passion for climbing is a selfish past time.
She said: “It’s a selfish sport, people die on mountains in Scotland every year, it’s one of the training grounds for Everest.
“Everyone talks about Everest because it has the romance of being so tall.
“I’ve climbed a few mountains in South America but would I be able to cope with 400 people in front of me with 50 mile an hour winds?
“Everest is still my dream and I’d love to climb Denali in North America but that’s arguably more dangerous.”
