Woman trying to prove ‘vegans can do anything’ among four dead on Mount Everest
29,029.
That’s how many feet in the air the peak of Mount Everest towers in Nepal, and over the world, in its gleaming white brilliance. Since the British first billed it as the highest point on Earth in 1856, that snow-capped tip, where almost no life can survive without mechanical assistance because of oxygen levels that are one-third those at sea level, sings a Siren’s song to some high achievers. In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay offered photographic evidence that proved the feat achievable. Achievable, yes, but maddeningly difficult. The quest to reach (and return from) it has cost more than 250 lives over the years. It’s such a herculean task that it’s become the linguistic stand-in for any difficult job — writing that novel or completing that marathon was “my own personal Everest,” some might say.
For Maria Strydom and her husband, Robert Gropel, climbing Everest while adhering to a strict vegan diet was their “own personal Everest.”
The 34-year-old Strydom, a lecturer at Monash Business School in Melbourne, Australia, had a message she wanted to share with the world: Veganism is not a handicap.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-more-missing-and-thirty-sick-or-frostbitten/