Andy Nolan, formerly of Charleville, has spent several years on a quest to climb the highest mountain on each of the seven continents in the world, and having completed six peaks – completely self-funded –he is actively looking for corporate sponsorship to complete the last one, Mount Everest.
In December, Andy summited Vinson Mountain in Antarctica, raising vital funds for the Children’s Grief Centre in Limerick, and he has expressed appreciation to everyone for their support. For those who would like to contribute, they can still do so by going to the ‘Andy’s Fundraiser for the Children’s Grief Centre’ on iDonate.
The 7-summit mount-aineering challenge is to climb the highest peaks of the seven continents. These are: Kilimanjaro, the largest free-standing mountain in the world. Elbrus in Russia; Aconcagua, January, the highest mountain in both the northern and southern hemispheres outside of the Himalayas. The mountain typically has a 30% summit success rate; Denali (also known as Mount McKinley, its former official name; Kosciuszko, in Australia; Vinson in Antarctica; and finally, Everest, in Asia.
Andy says, “I love mountaineering. A journey like this starts with a local walk or hike. You need to explore what’s outside of normal day-to-day life to find out what’s inside of you. If you asked me at age 36, would I be climbing mountains abroad, then I’d have said ‘definitely not’. Take the leap and push your internal boundaries; limitations should never exist personally or profess-ionally. If you succeed, then you succeed. If you fail, then you fail. But you will learn from the positive or the negative, and this is real progress.”
Having summited six of the seven peaks, Andy is now looking for collaborators to help him achieve the 7-peaks dream.
He can be contacted on Andrew.Nolan@ul.ie. Photographs from his various climbs can be seen on Instagram and Facebook, and of course donations to the charity can be made on iDonate.