'A very different mountain now': Reflections from first Irish Mount Everest climber on anniversary

Dawson Stelfox after he descended from the summit of Everest on May 27, 1993, the first Irishman to make the top of the world's highest peak (Picture: Irish Everest Expedition 1993)

"It's a very different mountain now," Dawson Stelfox says 30 years since he returned to a high-altitude base camp in Tibet, after making records for becoming the first Irish person to climb Mount Everest. 

Mr Stelfox, an architect from Belfast, says he feels very fortunate that the first Irish attempt on the world’s highest mountain was made before it became so commercial - when experience rather than money was what counted.