Hong Kong Everest conqueror tells of harrowing climb and desire to push for organ donations
Physiotherapist Elton Ng Chun-ting returns from journey to top of world’s highest mountain, and says all he wants is some good food
A local physiotherapist who on Sunday became only the seventh Hongkonger to have summited Mount Everest said he would like to use publicity surrounding his achievement to promote organ donation.
Speaking at the airport upon his return to Hong Kong on Thursday, 38-year-old Elton Ng Chun-ting told media of a harrowing journey to the top of the world’s highest peak during which he saw climbers struggling for survival.
“When I was on my way to reaching the summit, there were several foreign hikers sitting along the trail, dying,” Ng said, “I felt so powerless – I could not stop to help them as I had no extra oxygen bottles.
“There was no way to rescue those people high up on Everest, but I was thinking, could I do something to help people down in my home city? I decided there and then it would be to promote organ donation.”
All he wanted after arriving back from his epic adventure was some good food, he said.
Ng went to Everest with two organ transplant recipients, Martin Wong Yim-wah and Peter Chan Kwok-ming, who both suffered from kidney disease before receiving the donations.
Wong, a founding chairman of the Hong Kong Transplant Sports Association, said Ng had been a volunteer physiotherapist for his team when he went to Australia to compete in the world transplant Olympics, a multi-sport event occurring every two years that is organised by the World Transplant Games Federation.
“Ng’s successful conquering of Mount Everest is very encouraging not only for us organ transplant recipients but also for Hong Kong in general,” Wong said. “We haven’t had any good news for so long in this city.”
Ng made the journey to the summit together with the first woman from Hong Kong to have managed the feat, teacher Ada Tsang Yin-hung.
The pair relied mainly on two Sherpa guides whom Ng largely credited with the success of their mission.
“While one of them had severe altitude sickness and could not continue the journey, the other was truly my saviour,” Ng said. “He used all kinds of ways to help me safely descend from the summit, even including swearing, pushing and kicking me!”
Ng said he almost lost his sight during the journey and felt burning in his eyes.
“All my right eye could see was endless white at the time, while the left eye could only see blurry objects and colours.”
Ng urged climbers not to take the challenge to scale the mountain so recklessly, saying rigorous training was required along with familiarity with the necessary equipment.
He estimated there might be fewer than 50 people in Hong Kong qualified to scale Mount Everest.
More than 5,000 climbers have reached the top of the mountain since it was first summited by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Nearly 300 have died trying.
Many of the victims remain on the mountain, entombed in snow and ice, as it is too difficult to bring their bodies down.
Altitude sickness, exhaustion, frostbite and falls are the major reasons for their deaths, while avalanches have been an increasing threat in recent years.
