Beyond the death zone: Pat Falvey pays tribute to his fellow mountaineer Noel Hanna

Friends and fellow mountaineers join the Limerick man's family in paying tribute to Noel Hanna who died on Monday in Nepal

Noel Hanna. Photo: Noelhanna.com

Around two years ago, Noel Hanna had a conversation about mountaineering with famed explorer Pat Falvey.

They mentioned something few of us know about — let alone ever talk about.

Sharing a few drinks with friends in the Castlerosse Park Resort Hotel in Killarney, Co Kerry, where Pat lives, they discussed the so-called “death zone”.

This is the lethal section of the summits of the world’s tallest mountains that starts at 8,000m.

They are where oxygen levels have fallen to such an extent that the levels are insufficient to sustain human life for any prolonged amount of time.

While Noel didn’t die in the death zone on Mount Annapurna, in west Nepal, on Monday night, he had just come down out of one.

Noel Hanna was an experienced mountaineer whose career included 10 summits of Everest, including his Seven Summits Treks group in 2019. 

The 56-year-old — whose climbing career included 10 summits of Mount Everest, two of which had been with his wife Lynne — had reached the 8,091m peak earlier in the day.

The bodyguard and fitness instructor had then made his way down from what is one of the highest and most treacherous mountains in the world.

The Co Down man had made himself some soup in a makeshift campsite around 800m from the summit before going to bed but, tragically, never woke up.

There was, as Lynne said shortly after she found out, “no drama”.

It was, she added, “his time to go”.

Speaking from his lodge in Kerry’s MacGillycuddy Reeks, Pat Falvey’s voice still betrayed the shock he felt when he first found out Noel had died. He said:

About a year and a half ago, we were actually talking about going into the death zone.

“I had decided not to go to the death zone anymore, but we always knew the risks as we were getting older.

“He was 56, he was pushing his heart and his body to that limit.

“He would have come off the death zone, so his heart and his lungs would have been under huge pressure.

“He was a seasoned professional mountaineer but what happens is the altitude puts pressure on every cell in every muscle in your body.

Noel Hanna at the summit of Kilimanjaro with an expedition he led in 2018. Picture: Instagram/noelhannaadventure

“Because Noel was very, very fit it would be presumed that if he died in his sleep, he would have died peacefully.

“He would have done all the health checks, because he was a very meticulous person. Things like that happen at altitude and everybody knows the risks of this.

“We take it unconsciously when we do it, but you can’t predict the outcome.

No matter how experienced you are, each time you go to the dead zone, it can affect you in different ways.

He added: “He was an amazing climber and had amazing success and it’s just so sad his life has cut off at 56.”

Friends say Noel Hanna’s proudest achievement was reaching the 6,942m summit of Burke-Khang in 2017.

Noel was in a team led by Bill Burke, who — in 2014, when he was 72 — became the oldest American climber to reach the top of Mount Everest and live.

Although Mr Burke was unable to get to the summit of Burke-Khang himself, Noel and the rest of the team did.

In doing so, they became the first people to ascend the highly technical peak, which sits between Mount Everest and Mount Cho-oyu in the Khumbu Himal, east of Nepal.

Mr Burke later paid special tribute to Noel, who he called the “strongest climber I know [and] a born leader and high achiever”.

Among other achievements that Noel was most proud of was having been to the highest point on all seven continents and for coordinating and positioning both the Red Bull film crews and the jumper in place for the world’s highest base jump, at Everest, in May 2013.

He was also proud to have helped the first black African woman ascend to the summit in 2019.

One of his proudest achievements was also to have been the first Irish man to successfully ascend and descend K2 since Ger McDonnell made the first Irish ascent in 2008.

Tragically, the Limerick man was killed on his way down from the summit.

Noel served in the RUC and the PSNI for 15 years until 2002 and was once Bill Clinton’s bodyguards on one of his visits to the North. During one of his climbs up Everest, he rescued a climber who succumbed to snow blindness and was unable to get off the mountain without help.

No stranger to a few scrapes in his time, he had to abandon one of his own climbs up Everest in 2005 when he nearly went blind 7,000m into his climb.

Noel and Lynne had, in February 2022, moved to a town outside Quebec, Canada, where she now works as a general manager for Clarins.

Previously, they had lived in South Africa for more than nine years from 2012 when she was appointed CEO of the Paris-based cosmetic giant.

Although they did not have children, the couple — who met through a shared interest in adventure sports — shared a passion for their three dogs Babu, Ruskie, and Buddha.

Noel Hanna was one of then US president Bill Clinton's bodyguards during a visit to the North. File picture: noelhanna.com

Buddha died earlier this year and the couple — whose social media posts and profiles show them with their beloved German Shepherds — came to Ireland at the end of January to spread his ashes on the top of Slieve Donard, Co Down.

They did the same when Babu, who Noel once described in an interview as being “nearly like a human”, died.

They had him as a puppy in 2005 when Noel was convalescing after he suffered retinal haemorrhaging during an Everest attempt.

Noel is himself on his way back to his beloved Finnis, Co Down — just over a mile from the village of Dromara.

There he is mourned by his many friends and family, including his sister Irene.

She recently posted on social media her thoughts.

She said: “[It] still hasn’t sunk in that we lost a very special person, not just in our family but in the whole Dromara community and beyond.

“Seeing many people that saw how special you are and like us, able to experience that for themselves.

“You just never know what’s round the corner but I am grateful for the time that I was able to have with you.

“I love you wee brother.”

Renowned Singaporean adventurer and author of Journeys to the Ends of the Earth, Khoo Swee Chiow, paid tribute to Noel on Friday afternoon, addressing him directly in a post on Facebook.

“Hey Noel, You left us too soon," he wrote. 

“I always remember when I was totally exhausted on Kanchenjunga, you gave me gummy bear and coke to perk me up.

You stayed with me until I was ok. I am so sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed help this time.

“You have touched each of us and lit up the adventure spirit in us.

“Your generosity, cheerfulness and humor will always stay with us.

“I am glad you are in a much better place.

“Now you can fly over beautiful mountains. No need to climb anymore.”