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Legless New Zealand climber conquers Everest
Inglis, 47, who had lost both his legs to frostbite in a climbing accident, scaled the 8,850 metre summit in 40 days.
New Zealand mountaineer Mark Inglis has become the first double amputee to climb Mt Everest, his wife Anne said on Tuesday.
Inglis, 47, who lost both his legs to frostbite in a climbing accident in 1982, reached Everest's 8,850 metre summit on Monday after 40 days on the world's highest peak, she said.
According to Anne, Inglis, who snapped one of his carbon fibre artificial legs while acclimatising on the mountain last month, told her that he had achieved his ambition in two satellite phone calls but the connection was lost both times and she had no further details.
"I don't know how many got up," she said.
Earlier, she told a local newspaper in Christchurch that her husband - who is a Paralympics cycling silver medallist - achieved what he did through determination and his positive attitude.
"A lot of it is to promote what you can do whether you are disabled or not," she said. "If you've got a dream, do not let anything stop you from doing it."
Inglis was a mountain rescue guide when he and fellow countryman Phil Doole both had their legs amputated below the knee after being trapped in an ice cave for 14 days by a blizzard on New Zealand's Mount Cook in November 1982.
