When the bottom fell out of Carol Masheter’s life at age 50, she took up high altitude mountaineering to cope with grief and anger. She was an unlikely climber. Afraid of heights, she also struggled with anxiety and depression. Little did she know that mountaineering would lead her to climb Mount Everest when she was 61, an age when many people want to retire and relax. “No Magic Helicopter: An Aging Amazon’s Climb of Mount Everest” chronicles Dr. Masheter’s preparation for the climb of a lifetime, her struggle to the summit, and the blind descent that threatened her life. Since writing “No Magic Helicopter,” Carol Masheter has become the oldest woman in the world to summit the Seven Summits, the highest peak on each of the seven continents. She started with Aconcagua in Argentina, the highest peak in South America, at age 60 years and 3 months in January, 2007, and finished with Mt. Kosciuszko in Australia at age 65 years and 5 months on March 17, just after noon, 2012. A local operator failed to get Dr. Masheter, three other climbers, and their expedition leader close enough to the Carstensz Pyramid to climb it. She plans to climb this peak, considered by some of the mountaineering community to be the "eighth summit," if suitable arrangements can be made.
Carol Masheter's public speaking engagements:
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 © 2011 Carol Masheter. All Rights Reserved. |
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