An all-Irish mountaineering group is preparing to attempt a new route on the Himalayan peak, Jonsang, in Nepal next year. This means Ireland will send two expeditions to the world's highest mountain range this year.
The five-man Jonsang group is in training and will leave in two months for the Kanchenjung region in the Himalayan range. The 7,490-metre peak has never been climbed from Nepal before.
The group includes Kieran O'Hara from Tollymore Mountain Centre in Co Down, Malcolm McNaught from Belfast, Robbie Fenlon and Tomas Aylward from Tiglin Adventure Centre in Co Wicklow and Gareth Henry, a civil servant.
The expedition leaves Ireland for Kathmandu on March 20th, and will complete a 12-day walk into base camp at Pangpema in early April. The climbers will spend six weeks on the mountain, along with two Nepalese mountaineers.
Speaking at the recent announcement of the expedition's plans in the House of Sport, run by the Sports Council of Northern Ireland, Everest climber Dawson Stelfox said it would be "no easy task". But the five members of the expedition were talented and would enjoy it, he added.
Fenlon, who recently qualified as the Republic's third international mountain guide, was a member of the successful 1993 Irish Everest expedition. Last autumn, he was one of two Irish participants in a multinational expedition to the Chola Shan in Sichuan, China.
The venture will be one of two by Irish mountaineers to the Himalaya in 1998. An Irish expedition sets out next summer for K2, the world's second highest mountain. Led by Calvin Torrans, the highly experienced climber and international mountain guide, the group also has a cross-Border dimension as three of the six-man team are from the North. The six will acclimatise on Broad Peak, an 8,000-metre summit, and intend to tackle K2 without artificial oxygen or high altitude porters.
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