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Reese Tarrant can still remember that one special night as if it was yesterday. When he reached an altitude of more than 6,100 meters. “I could see Mount Everest in the moonlight and millions of stars lit up the sky”, he recalls.
Mountain climbing has fascinated Reese Tarrant for many years. The list of mountains that he has climbed is indeed impressive: the Aoraki in New Zealand (3,724 meters), Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia (4,095 meters), and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania (5,895 meters). The 45-year-old is Area Sales Manager at NORMA Group in Sydney, Australia.
However, with the ascent to the base camp of the highest mountain in the world, he wanted to prove something special: “You can always go further and master difficult challenges in life”. He experienced this for himself. In November 2014, his doctors told Reese that he had thyroid cancer. “I was very depressed and asked myself: why me?!”
While he was recovering from the disease, he wanted to prove that he was still as strong as he was before. Reese prepared for the tour and trained for eight months until the time had finally come in October 2015.
Finding inner peace on the mountaintop
The ascent took 16 days. Temperatures were around freezing point during the day and then dropped to –15 degrees Celsius at night. He then learned for himself: “You achieve something with every step you take”.
A breathtaking panoramic view from the top is always waiting at the end of the path. “Besides the quiet, this is the best thing about mountain climbing. At these incredible heights, you realize how small you really are. You find your inner peace.”
