Cool Summits Everest Twice In A Week

At 3.50am on May 24th Kenton Cool achieved the remarkable. He stood on the summit of Everest for the second time in a week.Although he was a lone in the darkness he wasn´t alone in the feat. Willy Benegas (Arg) and Rob Cassiley (UK) both managed the same super human effort on the same day. To clear up any misunderstanding, to summit the mountain means that the ascent has to start from Base Camp, some 3500m below the summit. Willy first summited the mountain this season on May 16th followed by Rob and Kenton on the 17th. Rob and Kenton are on the same team (Dream Guides) and had only 2days rest at BC between ascents; both were with clients on the summit pushes. Starting back up the mountain on May 21 st they moved quickly up to camp 2 where the clients were resting. The next day was a push to camp 3 and then onto the south col (7950) on May 23rd. Leaving this wind swept camp at night they both summited early on May 24th. Kenton is now back at BC while Rob is at camp 2 and will be back down tomorrow with the rest of the team. For Kenton this is his 5th Everest Summit (in four years) and Rob is on number 4. Not only do they hold UK and European records for number of summits they now hold the only western double summit in a season. It´s been a big year on Everest with over 500 people reaching the summit in 2007! Perhaps the most unusual story to come from the whole circus is that various individuals have been able to phone friends, family and sponsors directly from the summit thanks to the Chinese installing a telephone mast at Base Camp on the North side of the mountain.

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