Prime minister hails double amputee who conquered Everest

New Zealander Mark Inglis, the first double amputee to reach the summit of Mount Everest, was congratulated today by another keen climber – prime minister Helen Clark.

Inglis, 47, reached the peak of the world’s tallest mountain yesterday, phoning his wife Anne on South Island to say he had made it and returned to his party’s base camp.

“As a very amateur climber myself with two sound legs and having got to 19,700 feet, I can appreciate what an amazing achievement this is and I offer him my full congratulations,” Clark said.

She hopes to congratulate Inglis personally for his “absolutely incredible feat”. But asked if she would be prepared to tackle the world’s tallest mountain herself, she said: “No, not even with two sound legs. No, it’s too tough.”

Mount Everest is 29,035ft high and Inglis has spent a gruelling 40 days on the mountain.

Mrs Inglis said her husband had set out in his bid to reach the world’s tallest peak on his prosthetic legs with an early morning start in perfect weather from Camp 4 – less than 1,500ft below the summit.

The original expedition party split into two groups, with four members of the first group reaching the top earlier in the day, she said.

Inglis and his group of 20, including Sherpa guides, were in the second party.

The climber’s legs were severed just below the knees after he suffered frostbite when trapped by storms while climbing New Zealand’s highest peak, Mount Cook, in 1982.

Inglis was a mountain guide when he and climbing companion Phil Doole were found barely alive two weeks after they were forced into an ice cave high on Mount Cook by storm and blizzard conditions.

Wine maker and father-of-three Inglis climbed 26,906ft Mount Cho Oyu in Tibet in 2004. He said before leaving to climb Everest that the further he went up a mountain the less disadvantage he had.

Clark said Inglis was an inspirational person who had made an incredibly noteworthy achievement in scaling Everest.

He had sent a signal to others with disabilities “that your ambitions should never be limited”, she said.

She said that while she would love to talk to him, she would wait until he was safely off the top of the mountain.

Clark has climbed Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and got to 19,700 feet on Argentina’s 22,841ft Mount Aconcagua.