Everest diaries: Johnny Ward takes on 'daunting' final approach to the summit

Galway-born Johnny Ward is documenting his 50-day journey to the top of Everest, the highest mountain peak in the world, weekly on irishexaminer.com.

Johnny Ward is on the last leg of his journey up the highest mountain in the world.

May 10 

So this morning we went on one of our regular hikes from base camp just to keep the blood flowing. We hiked up to Kala Patthar which is about 5700m - a beautiful hike to keep us occupied while waiting for the weather to clear. But of course I got carried away while taking photos and videos up there and I left my hiking pole! So I had to climb all the way back up, five hours later and I eventually made it back to camp. Genius of the year award goes to…..Johnny Ward.