Matterhorn (4,478 meter, 14,692 ft) showing her Northeast ridge (in the center of the picture).

I was barely asleep when when my climbing partner, Brian Palmer from Sydney, Australia, woke me up at 4:45AM on August 25, 1988. Just two of us were to climb Matterhorn with our guide Heiri.
We were at Hornli Hut at the base of the northeast ridge of Matterhorn. In the picture, the hut is located near the right-end of the "C-shaped" white snow formation about middle of the picture. During the night it rained and froze and the rock was covered with ice. The chief guide told us that there would be no climbing today. During the night there was a helicopter rescue of a climber at the upper ridge near the summit.
Other climbers decided to stay another night to see if condition would improve tomorrow. I heard later that those climbers who went up next day had to retreat in the upper part of the northeast ridge due to bad weather.
Then, I was in a busy surgical practice and I just ran out of my vacation time. To me, I didn't have tomorrow.
That was the end of my attempt to climb Matterhorn. I thought I might come back later but it never happened.
Thus, ah... I've never put Matterhorn into my bag of conquered peaks.
There were a few good reasons for the lack of my desire to climb Matterhorn.
By then, I had already summitted Monte Rosa, the highest in Swiss Alps, and Mont Blanc, the highest in French Alps.
Both of them are higher than Matterhorn.
After having done the No.1 and 2 in the Alps, the unfinished climb of Matterhorn was quickly forgotten as an insignificant event. Then, there were still more higher summits to climb and I have never thought about Matterhorn to try again.



Monte Rosa Massif (4,634 m, 15,203 ft) seen from Zermatt. The summit of Monte Rosa (known as "Dufourspitze", Doufour Peak) is touched by a hand of a cloud in the picture.

Just 2 days ago, I had climbed Monte Rosa, 500 feet higher than Matterhorn. Starting at 4:00AM 8-23-1988 from the Monte Rosa Hut (2,795 m, 9,170 ft), with a headlight under a dark starry sky. Whenever I looked up, there was the brilliantly shining Constellation of Pleiades looking down at me. The invisible summit of Monte Rosa seemed to be farther than The Pleiades. My rope partner was Dennis Jones, an IBMer from Gaithersburg, Maryland, lead by a young Swiss guide, Heiri Julen.  It took 7 hours of climbing of 1,839 meters (6,033 ft) entirely on snow. We were wearing crampons all the way due to steep icy slope. It was one of the most exhausting climbs I ever had. A 6,000 feet climb in one morning !!



The final summit ridge of Monte Rosa, Dufourspitze (Defour peak)The highest point in Switzerland.

Soon, the sun came up just like this picture but the slope became even more steeper. At about 10:00AM, we reached the summit ridge shown in the above picture.
It was a knife-edged rocky ridge with possibly a-thousand-feet cliffs on both sides.
At 10:50AM 8-23-1988, I reached the summit just behind my Swiss guide Heiri. He offered me a hand-shake and said, "Congratulations, you reached the summit."
"Had I reached the summit?" I was just numb and didn't know if I was happy or not.



Mont Blanc Massif seen from air from Chamonix, France. The rounded snow-dome at right upper horizon is the summit (4,810 m, 15,781 ft).

A few days before Monte Rosa climb, I bagged the summit of Mont Blanc in French Alps.
Starting at 5:00AM from a hotel in Chamonix, we took a cable car to the top of Aiguille du midi (3,777 m, 12,392 ft). We climbed down about 100 meters to the glacial valley floor to start a climb to the summit of Mont Blanc at 7:00AM. My rope partner was Dennis Jones (mentioned above) with our guide Luc Bellon, a member of the Chamonix rescue squad and a part-time mountain guide.
7 hours and about 3,700 feet later, at 2:00PM August 18, 1988, we reached the snow-domed summit of Mont Blanc.
As a memento of the climb, I bought Luc's climbing rope we used during the Matterhorn climb. I still keep it with me and used in climbings in Utah. 

Mont Blanc is the highest in Alps and the highest in the western Europe. Then, what's the highest in entire Europe? It is Mount Elbrus in the Caucasian Range in Soviet Union. But, by a strange turn of event, Elbrus had to wait for a while because Kilimanjaro unexpectedly came into my view as the next destination. The story continues under the next picture.



Mount Kilimanjaro in East Africa, the mystic snow-covered mountain under the equator.

On the way back to home from the climbs of the Alps, in a KLM airplane, I just opened the KLM flight magazine of the month.
In the first opened page, there, I saw a big picture of Mount Kilimanjaro followed by a story of a climb on it.
I thought about Kilimanjaro, the highest in Africa, long before but it wasn't the next target.
It was a very strange feeling. I asked myself, "Is someone up there telling me to head for Kilimanjaro?"

In the Christmas time of 1988, I found myself climbing the slope of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, East Africa.
At Kibo Hut, the last hut before the summit of Kilimanjaro, a knock came at the door at 12:15 AM, just past the midnight. It was meant to get up from the bunk bed for the climb to the summit. After a hot tea nad a bread, we left Kibo Hut (15,000 ft) at 1:38AM. There was snow during the night and moon light was bright enough to show our way.

Lead by the chief Tanzanian guide, Joseph, we started to climb the steep monotonous summit cone of the African volcano. A few people dropped out and returne to Kibo Hut. After a long exhausting climb, at 6:15 AM, we reached Gilman's Point (5,685m), at the rim of the summit volcanic crater. For general climbers, this is considered as the summit of Kilimanjaro. Yet, the real summit, Uhuru Peak was another 2 hours away through the deep snow. 10 people reached the Gilman's Point and 8 of them chose to descend. Here, the Tanzanian guide, William and British guide, Tom Ripellino declared that the snow was too deep for the summit climb. The soft snow was knee-deep.

Only two of us, Boris from Czeckoslovakia and me, from Korea, wanted to climb further. Among us, only Boris and I were dedicated mountain climbers. In a quick desperate strategy, I asked, "How about climbing for about an hour and see? The summit ridge may have thinner snow cover than here." Two guides hesitated for a while and agreed on my suggestion.

It was only 600 feet to the summit but the distance was very far. Through the knee-deep snow, we climbed on. As I guessed, once we were on the summit ridge, the snow was wind-blown and was not deep. But I was struggling to catch my breath in the thin air of Kilimanjaro summit. I knew I was also severely dehydrated. Eventually, we reach the summit, the Uhuru Peak at 9:00 AM, December 27, 1988. Heminway's "The snow of Kilimanjaro" that I had kept in my head for more than 30 years was finally in my bag. 



The twin peaks of Mount Elbrus summit. An Inactive volcano. Highest in all Europe.
The west summit stands at 5,642 metres (18,510 ft); and the east summit is slightly lower at 5,621 metres (18,442 ft).

To all of us Koreans, The Soviet Union was the "Evil Empire." All the troubles of 625 conflict was because of the communist Soviet Union. On September, 1990, I found myself heading for Moscow to climb the highest mountain of the Soviet Union. This time, I was no longer a poor Korean but I was an American who hired Russian guide as my slave for a change.

We reached Baksan Valley under the mighty Caucasian Range in southern Russia and setup our base camp at Priutt Hut at the base of the glacier of Elbrus Mountain. Summit attempts were made two days in a row and we were driven back due to fiercely bad weather of snow and winds. Time was running out. On September 19, 1990, the alarm clock went off at 4:00 AM. Outside, I saw stars in the sky, meaning the sky is clear with no chance of snow. At 5:15 AM, I crawled out of the door of the Priutt Hut (13,780 ft) with crampons on and again I saw the milky Way across the sky. Bravo ! We might have a chance today. Looking up the Constellation of the Big Dipper penetrating the eastern slope of the Eastern Peak while Cassiopia was just over the Western Peak.

After a long climb on the endless snow slope, we reached the base of the summit cone of the Eastern Peak. Our Russian guide Sasha hurried up his climbing pace as if he was trying to make us tired and hoping we gave up further climbing. This is somewhat similar tactic they used in Mount Kilimanjaro. After passing a spot where previous avalanche happened, Sasha told us to put our bag down. Then he said we were going to climb the Eastern Peak which was much closer just above us while the true summit, the Western Peak would be much farther from where we were. At this point, before I said anything, Bob from San Francisco insisted that we should climb the Western Peak. Of course, I took side with Bob. I would have said the same thing anyway if Bob didn't say. Soon, Hank joined us and it was 3:1 for the Western Peak.

Sasha followed us with no further argument and we climbed down and up through the Saddle (5,232 m, 17,160 ft) at 11:00 AM and headed the steep eastern wall of the Western Peak. On the icy slope, my crampons got loose and had some trouble on the way. At 1:00 PM, September 19, 1990, I stepped on the summit of entire Soviet Union. It was something I wanted it so bad as a Korean. On the small summit terrace, there was a large wrench on a rock cairn. There supposed to be a bronze bust of Vladimir Lenin at the summit but it wan't there. I am sure someone, like me, had thrown it down the slope.



The massif of Aconcagua (6,961 m, 22,837 ft), the highest in South America.




Distant view of Aconcagua from Laguna Espejo.
The long trail at right of the lake toward the valley toward the summit.

The summit came under my feet in December, 1990. This was the highest height I have reached.



Mount Vinson, 16,066 feet (4,897 meters), Sentinel Range, Ellwsworth Mountains, Antarctica.

Then came the summit of Mount Vinson of Antarctica in 1992. That turned out to be the end of my world-wide peak-bagging adventure.

Mount Everest (8,848 metres, 29,029 ft). The one, never challenged by me.

The chances for Mount Everest came in 1994 through a private team and 2000 by Korean Alpine Club but I declined both.
By then, I was retired from my job and I considered myself too old for the challenge. I guess I was well learned and matured enough to realize the limit of how much I can do at the age of mine.

Mount McKinley, the highest in North America at 20,237 feet (6,168 m),
Reached the summit at 2:30 PM, June 30, 1979 after 18 days of climb via Kahiltna Glacier of the south face. It took 7 days to descend through the Harper and Muldrow Glacier in north face. I was the first Korean to "traverse" the entire mountain from south to north. 

A successful climb of this highest "base to summit" vertical (18,000 ft, while Mount Everest is only 12,000 ft) of Mount McKnley, and what I had learned from it eventually lead me to the rest of the climbs all of the world. Of all the above climbs, to me, this was the mother of all climbs. I am eternally grateful to her.