Ben Lowry: A Northern Irish man who climbed Everest, not just dreamed of it

​(Scroll down for link to Ben Lowry’s main column this weekend)

There were three physical challenges I wanted to achieve when younger. One was to run a marathon, preferably in under four hours. Another was to cycle across America (it can be done in two months if you are fit, which once I was, cycling in a day to Dublin, Londonderry etc). The most ambitious was to climb Everest, since as a boy I saw the pictures of Hillary and Tenzing on what was a very definable peak (not all summits in fact have such an obvious highest point).

You do not have to be a seasoned climber to reach the highest point on Earth. It is not a technical climb. You need to be a very fit hill walker, and willing to pay tens of thousands of pounds. But while I dreamt, others achieved. I have interviewed Richard Dougan, Neil Elliott and Hannah Shields, three NI people who either reached the highest point on Earth or led expeditions to it. I am now too heavy to do such a thing, and have asthma and two winter sport knee injuries. My younger goals will stay fantasy.

Noel Hanna was one of those people who worked to secure his dream, including not just multiple ascents of Everest but the far more dangerous ascent of K2. It is poignant to hear his wife Lynne say: “He died in the Himalayas, what better place.”

Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter editor

Ben Lowry: Clinton showed how US, EU and Ireland envisage NI being run