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Father misses daughter’s call from top of Everest
LONDON: It took three attempts before Alyssa Azar was able to tell her father that she had reached the top of Mount Everest on Saturday.
LONDON: It took three attempts before Alyssa Azar was able to tell her father that she had reached the top of Mount Everest on Saturday.
If there is one phone call you do not want to miss, it is the one your daughter makes standing on top of the tallest mountain in the world.
But that is what happened to Glenn Azar when his “baby”, Alyssa, made it to the summit.
Speaking from Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea on Thursday, he said he did not get the initial call because he was leading a trek along the Kokoda Track. “My belief was she must have summited,” he said.
It took another few hours for Alyssa, 19, to confirm the news. The satellite phone had already cut out twice, but she managed to utter the words “Yes I summited” before the line disconnected a third time.
The Queensland woman’s successful climb made her the youngest Australian to reach the top of the world’s tallest mountain, eclipsing the record set by Rex Pemberton in 2005. “It’s been something she’s focused on, dreamed about and worked towards for years,” he said. “It could’ve been her one shot at it and she nailed it.”
Alyssa left a photo of her 12-year-old brother, Christian – who has autism and an intellectual disability – at the summit. Her father said it was a gesture that meant an incredible amount to the rest of the family.
He said his daughter texted him in the lead-up to the hardest part of the climb, warning him it would be the toughest five days of her life.
