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Always a mountain to climb for guide Adele
WHEN Adele Pennington was three she built a mound of snow in the garden, climbed it in her new wellies, and told her mum: "I'm on top of the world."
Some 39 years later, she really was.
After a final 10-hour effort to scale the uppermost slopes of the highest mountain on earth, she arrived at the top of Everest, only the 20th British woman to do so.
But despite fulfilling a lifelong dream, she had little interest in the incredible snowcapped peaks below. She wanted to head down straightaway!
Adele, aged 42, a guide with Sheffield-based Jagged Globe, was with colleague David Hamilton, seven clients and two Sherpas.
She said: "We spent 20 minutes on the top, but I would have taken a few pictures and then left! I felt very vulnerable at 8,848 metres.
"We didn't know what the weather was going to do, I had lots of things to think about, and I just thought, 'This mountain isn't climbed until we all are safely down at base camp' - which takes two days.
"It was amazing but it's still sinking in."
Adele, of Fanshawe Road, Dronfield, had more reason than most to give thanks - nine years earlier she nearly died in a climbing accident.
After a day climbing a long route in the Alps with a pal the ropes jammed as they neared safety. She slipped while abseiling, a safety knot failed, and she plummeted 90ft to the ground.
Adele suffered 16 fractures on impact, including her pelvis, three vertebrae, her breastbone and skull. But her misfortune wasn't over, for she then bounced into a crevasse - where she spent the next 17 hours awaiting rescue, developing frostbite and hypothermia.
Then, when a helicopter did arrive, it whisked her climbing partner and another climber away first, leaving her alone.
She was finally plucked to safety and spent the next two months in hospital and four months in a wheelchair.
It was an experience that made Adele think about giving up climbing - briefly.
"I considered it for about a minute!" she said. "It was a very close call but it made me realise we're all only here for a short time. In fact it was then I decided to get into mountaineering full time.
"It's made me a better guide because I understand people better. I know what it's like to have a dodgy knee or be scared.
"I was 32 and invincible, now I'm 42 and sensible. I'm in pain a bit - when I'm in the office! As long as I keep active I'm okay."
Adele is certainly active. In one year she climbed mountains on all seven continents, including Mount Vinson in Antarctica.
This year she says she's seen more of her clients than she has of partner Paul Scott, and she's already looking forward to going back to Everest.
"I've always wanted to climb, I don't have any other hobbies and I like taking care of people - and getting them to the top of mountains," she said.
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
