Peter Kinloch 28 was raised on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, where his parents, Peter and Berni, along with his younger brother Iain, ran a fishing and a shooting service.
Kinloch was educated in Scotland before reading computer studies at Liverpool John Moores University and then completing a PhD. He worked as a civilian at the Merseyside Police Force in Liverpool dealing with pattern analysis from crime and incident databases and developed a second career as a motivational speaker. He was scheduled to take a new job in Belgium.
Kinloch was taking part in a Seven Summits challenge begun in 2005 where climbers attempt to conquer the highest mountain in each continent. He had already finished over half his goal, summiting the highest peaks in Africa (Kilimanjaro),
Europe(Mont Elbrus)
South America(Aconcagua), and North America (Mount Mckinley). Peter completed each of the climbs to raise awareness of obsessive compulsive disorder, of which he was a mild sufferer, through the group OCD Action. He had remaining Antartica(Vinson Massif),Oceania(Carstenz Pyramid) and Australia (Mount Kosciuszko). In an article in the Scottish newspaper The Press and Journal published in 2009 about Kinloch’s plans for Everest, he said, “So many people that climb just do it for the personal glory, and I want to give something back.”
Before he left for Kathmandu to tackle the mountain via the North Col route, he said: “I am really looking forward to breaking out the axe and getting the crampons icy once again.”
These were the initial reports of Peters's group leader, David Obrien
All 11 members are departing basecamp today and heading for intermediate camp. Then we will move up to ABC, the North Col, camp 2, camp 3, and god willing, the summit. Please pray for us and wish us luck, patience, and strength. Also, many many thanks to James Redeker from Canadian North Airlines for his weather advice!!!
This is the dispatch for 11-12 May. Our north col ABC trek group called and they are in interim camp preparing to move into advanced basecamp in the morning. Everyone is doing well. They are going to have ABC nearly to themselves and they have a massive support staff of sherpas, Tibetans, and their own personal Chinese guide, the amazing Asu.
20 May, 2010: This is a dispatch for the 20th of May for the SummitClimb Everest Tibet expedition.
It has been a very difficult and challenging last few days for our team. We'd like to congratulate the Tibetan and Chinese team for fixing the route to the summit of Mount Everest and for getting a lot of their members on the top safely. Job well done! Thank you very much.
Some other teams also summited. We heard some Taiwanese made the summit and today we met a Polish person named Magdalena who reached the summit on the 18th. Big congratulations!
Also, we'd like to inform you that 5 of our members and 2 of our sherpas are on the North Col and have been there for several days. They are trying to move to camp 2, but it's been too windy and difficult to go up. Other teams have tried to go up to camp 2 and turned around. They're hoping they can go in the morning.
The other 11 members of our team are safe and well in ABC. They hope to go to the North Col in the morning weather permitting and start their summit attempt, together with the remaining 8 sherpas who carried a load today up to the North Col.
We're hoping to get some good news on the weather. We heard that the wind may drop through the 21st-25th. We've been checking multiple weather sources in India and Tibet and really casting about for as much weather information as we can get. It seems that the forecasts are a bit unstable, but we hope that we'll be able to find a window so all members and sherpas can summit in safety.
We'll let you know how things are progressing. Thank you very much. Bye, bye.
It has been a very difficult and challenging last few days for our team. We'd like to congratulate the Tibetan and Chinese team for fixing the route to the summit of Mount Everest and for getting a lot of their members on the top safely. Job well done! Thank you very much.
Some other teams also summited. We heard some Taiwanese made the summit and today we met a Polish person named Magdalena who reached the summit on the 18th. Big congratulations!
Also, we'd like to inform you that 5 of our members and 2 of our sherpas are on the North Col and have been there for several days. They are trying to move to camp 2, but it's been too windy and difficult to go up. Other teams have tried to go up to camp 2 and turned around. They're hoping they can go in the morning.
The other 11 members of our team are safe and well in ABC. They hope to go to the North Col in the morning weather permitting and start their summit attempt, together with the remaining 8 sherpas who carried a load today up to the North Col.
We're hoping to get some good news on the weather. We heard that the wind may drop through the 21st-25th. We've been checking multiple weather sources in India and Tibet and really casting about for as much weather information as we can get. It seems that the forecasts are a bit unstable, but we hope that we'll be able to find a window so all members and sherpas can summit in safety.
We'll let you know how things are progressing. Thank you very much. Bye, bye.
This is a dispatch for the 24th of May for the SummitClimb Everest Tibet team. I'm calling you from camp 2 around 7800 metres/25,600 feet.
The current conditions are very gray skies and overcast. There are very light winds and it snowed quite a bit through the night. The temperature is pretty warm, not too bad and the time here is about 7:30 a.m. We're just waking up.
Yesterday was a tough day for our team. We climbed up from the North Col. It was a long climb up with about 800 vertical metres. One of our members, Nick, decided that he did not want to continue so he went down with Kipa Sherpa to the North Col. I talked to him last night on the radio and he's doing okay. He's down on the North Col and he plans to descend to advanced basecamp today.
The rest of the team is up here. We've got 4 members up in the high camp together with 2 sherpas. They tried for the summit last night. We haven't heard the outcome of their summit attempt yet. I did have the radio on all night and I did here some communication between the team members and sherpas, including a radio call saying they had reached the 2nd step. I haven't heard any other radio calls since then, but we're listening and waiting for them to call in. As soon as they do, we'll let you know.
Our team plans to go up to the high camp today, weather permitting. It's been pretty busy on this side of the mountain during this weather window.
Yesterday our team of 4 members and 2 sherpas called in to say that there weren't any tent sites available. They discussed with some of the other teams up there the situation who were kind enough to let them use their tents, so they didn't have to put up any tents. So that's good. In exchange, some of the other teams asked if they could give some of their members to us so we can help them reach the top on their 2nd summit bid. Apparently some of their members were trying to get to the summit, reached the 2nd step, went for their fresh bottle of oxygen and realized the bottle was empty. So they had to go back down. Can you imagine that? I do recall our local Kathmandu agent checking all of the bottles for us, so hopefully all of our oxygen bottles have oxygen in them.
We'll keep you informed as things progress up here. We wish all of team members and sherpas the best of luck. Also we also wish all of the other teams the best of luck as well.
It's pretty cloudy, so we're not totally sure what today's weather is going to bring, but at least the wind is not blowing too hard right now. We'll keep you informed. Thank you very much. Bye, bye.
Hi, this is a dispatch for the 24th of May for the SummitClimb Everest Tibet team. It's 7:52 p.m. Tibet time.
Our team is up in camp 3 at 8300 metres/27,200 feet. We've got some great news to report. Laval, Mark, and Gavin summited in the mid-morning together with Thile Sherpa. Fiko and Jangbu Sherpa summited about 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon. Everybody is down safely.
Our other group of 10 members is up in the high camp and we're going for the summit tonight at 11:00 p.m. Tibet time. Nick is safely down in ABC. He's doing well and we're going to miss him. What a great guy. We're sorry he's not with us.
Wish us all the best of luck. The weather was spotty today. There was lots of snow in the morning and it was windy. Right now the sun has popped out. It's still fairly breezy. We can see the summit. There's wind blowing up there, but we're hoping the wind dies tonight in time for our big summit attempt with those 10 members and 6 sherpas. So wish us luck and we'll keep you posted. Thank you very much. Bye, bye.
Our team is up in camp 3 at 8300 metres/27,200 feet. We've got some great news to report. Laval, Mark, and Gavin summited in the mid-morning together with Thile Sherpa. Fiko and Jangbu Sherpa summited about 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon. Everybody is down safely.
Our other group of 10 members is up in the high camp and we're going for the summit tonight at 11:00 p.m. Tibet time. Nick is safely down in ABC. He's doing well and we're going to miss him. What a great guy. We're sorry he's not with us.
Wish us all the best of luck. The weather was spotty today. There was lots of snow in the morning and it was windy. Right now the sun has popped out. It's still fairly breezy. We can see the summit. There's wind blowing up there, but we're hoping the wind dies tonight in time for our big summit attempt with those 10 members and 6 sherpas. So wish us luck and we'll keep you posted. Thank you very much. Bye, bye.
T25 May, 2010: Team 2 summits!
Hi, it's the 25th of May and this is a dispatch for the Everest Tibet SummitClimb expedition.
We got a call at 1:18 p.m. David was on the summit with 5 members and 4 sherpas. It was extremely windy and sunny. The other members who have been here all went down today, so everybody seems like they are doing okay so far. We will keep you posted. Thank you very much. Bye, bye.
From the climbing guide company's report:
Peter's summit day started at 10:00 pm on 24 may at camp 3 at 8300 meters. After dressing and preparing his kit, food, and water for the summit, he and the rest of the team set off for the summit at 12:00 am in the early morning hours of 25 may.
Our team ascended upward and passed the obstacles one surmounts in the climb of Mount Everest from the Tibet side, including first step, mushroom rock, second step, third step, final snow slope, and dihedral.
On the way up the final obstacles, Peter was in good spirits, moving steadily and sure-footedly together with our team, reaching the summit(29,029 ft) at around 1:00 pm on 25 May.
Summit team leader David Obrien radioed Expedition leader Dan Mazur, who was in camp 3 at 8300 metres, at 1:18 pm on 25 May to say the team was on the summit and everyone was in fine spirits and good health. David said it was very cold and windy and it had been a long and difficult climb.
On the summit Peter was elated, and cheery. Earlier during the expedition while dining with the team, he had said that climbing Everest would be the realization of a dream he had had for 25 years. While standing atop Everest, Peter took summit photos with the team.
Peter with two who just completed seventh summit.
Conditions were sunny, but extremely cold, windy, with blowing snow and some cloud.
Descending from the summit, Peter surprisingly seemed to lose his coordination and took a few slips and stumbles. These moments of clumsiness were interspersed with normal walking. Finally, reaching the top of the second step at approximately 2pm, he asked leader David Obrien, if David would show Peter how to descend the ladders. Peter told David that he (Peter) was having difficulties seeing, then finally that he couldn't see anything at all and was blind. In camp 3, several of the team's sherpas had descended earlier in the day with other members. 3 sherpas were sent up to assist over a period of several hours: Jangbu (Junior) was sent first, then later Phurba and Gyelje. Over many hours of slow progress helping the now blind Peter, he, David and Jangbu reached the area of "Mushroom Rock" at 8600 metres at approximately six o'clock.
Here they stopped for a rest, David gave Peter food and opened Peter's backpack to take out some of Peter's water for him to drink. The temperature was very cold with high winds. Upon examination, Peter had initial signs of frost bite on two fingers. Peter was mentally coherent as he was able to recognize the symptoms via his sense of touch and show his frostbitten fingers to David. He requested that David remove his extra large mittens out of Peter's rucksack. Throughout this event, Peter's speech and thinking seemed to remain sharp. His blindness seemed to be unique, and unconnected to any other illness. He may have been suffering from cerebral oedema which involves swelling of brain tissue which can result in retinal hemorrhaging
The other 2 sherpas arrived soon after to help with the rescue. The 3 sherpas and David did everything they could to get Peter to descend below this point for the next 8 hours (tried administering dex, high amounts of oxygen, etcetera) and managed to reach the end of the ridge. In the meanwhile, Peter’s condition and determination seemed to have changed, as Peter could no longer walk, was laying down in the snow at 8600 metres and had thrown away his oxygen, water bottle, and refused further medication. High altitude cerebral oedema may cause hallucination, limb paralysis and finally coma. The rescue team in trying to help Peter, had nearly run out of oxygen, food, water and after 12 hours were feeling the effects of extreme cold, dehydration, malnutrition, exhaustion, and frostbite.
Our team ascended upward and passed the obstacles one surmounts in the climb of Mount Everest from the Tibet side, including first step, mushroom rock, second step, third step, final snow slope, and dihedral.
On the way up the final obstacles, Peter was in good spirits, moving steadily and sure-footedly together with our team, reaching the summit(29,029 ft) at around 1:00 pm on 25 May.
Summit team leader David Obrien radioed Expedition leader Dan Mazur, who was in camp 3 at 8300 metres, at 1:18 pm on 25 May to say the team was on the summit and everyone was in fine spirits and good health. David said it was very cold and windy and it had been a long and difficult climb.
On the summit Peter was elated, and cheery. Earlier during the expedition while dining with the team, he had said that climbing Everest would be the realization of a dream he had had for 25 years. While standing atop Everest, Peter took summit photos with the team.
Peter with two who just completed seventh summit.
Conditions were sunny, but extremely cold, windy, with blowing snow and some cloud.
Descending from the summit, Peter surprisingly seemed to lose his coordination and took a few slips and stumbles. These moments of clumsiness were interspersed with normal walking. Finally, reaching the top of the second step at approximately 2pm, he asked leader David Obrien, if David would show Peter how to descend the ladders. Peter told David that he (Peter) was having difficulties seeing, then finally that he couldn't see anything at all and was blind. In camp 3, several of the team's sherpas had descended earlier in the day with other members. 3 sherpas were sent up to assist over a period of several hours: Jangbu (Junior) was sent first, then later Phurba and Gyelje. Over many hours of slow progress helping the now blind Peter, he, David and Jangbu reached the area of "Mushroom Rock" at 8600 metres at approximately six o'clock.
Here they stopped for a rest, David gave Peter food and opened Peter's backpack to take out some of Peter's water for him to drink. The temperature was very cold with high winds. Upon examination, Peter had initial signs of frost bite on two fingers. Peter was mentally coherent as he was able to recognize the symptoms via his sense of touch and show his frostbitten fingers to David. He requested that David remove his extra large mittens out of Peter's rucksack. Throughout this event, Peter's speech and thinking seemed to remain sharp. His blindness seemed to be unique, and unconnected to any other illness. He may have been suffering from cerebral oedema which involves swelling of brain tissue which can result in retinal hemorrhaging
The other 2 sherpas arrived soon after to help with the rescue. The 3 sherpas and David did everything they could to get Peter to descend below this point for the next 8 hours (tried administering dex, high amounts of oxygen, etcetera) and managed to reach the end of the ridge. In the meanwhile, Peter’s condition and determination seemed to have changed, as Peter could no longer walk, was laying down in the snow at 8600 metres and had thrown away his oxygen, water bottle, and refused further medication. High altitude cerebral oedema may cause hallucination, limb paralysis and finally coma. The rescue team in trying to help Peter, had nearly run out of oxygen, food, water and after 12 hours were feeling the effects of extreme cold, dehydration, malnutrition, exhaustion, and frostbite.
Down in camp 3 at 8300 metres, leader Dan Mazur, the team doctor Gordon, his wife Elizabeth, and their Sherpa Lakpa Gyaluk huddled in a tent around the walkie talkie radio, their only form of communication with the rescue team above. The four of them discussed the situation with urgency. Dan thought about it: it was 2:00 am in the morning, Peter was lying in the snow, now unable to walk, and resisting help. It was very dark and windy with blowing snow and extreme cold. Four people were now at risk of dying to rescue Peter who had made just 100 metres of descent in 12 hours. At this rate, all five might be dead by sunrise. This was the most difficult decision of his life, but Dan told Lhakpa to call on the radio and request the rescue team to come down. The four people in the tent in camp 3 sighed, held hands, mumbled prayers, cursed under their breath, and it was a horrible moment. The time was 2:30am on the 26th of May.
David and the other 3 sherpas arrived back in camp three at 5:30 in the morning with hypothermia, exhaustion, and frostbite.
David and the other 3 sherpas arrived back in camp three at 5:30 in the morning with hypothermia, exhaustion, and frostbite.
His body remains on the mountain, which has become the permanent resting place for many climbers over the decades. It is unclear whether the Tibetan authorities plan to recover it and any attempt would be fraught with danger.
Gul Cosguner, his Turkish fiancée, made an impassioned plea for him to to be brought down. She said: “I want to see Peter come home.”
