JAN/FEB 2015
Person of Interest
15
Martin on Aconcagua in South America
Martin Douthitt
Climb ev’ry mountain
... and he very nearly has
by Tanya J. Tyler,
Editor
Among mountain climbers, there
are seven summits
– the tallest mountain on each of
the continents – to conquer. Only
about 280 people in the world
have scaled all of them. Martin
Douthitt got caught up trying to
make that list, and he nearly accomplished his goal, unfortunately missing his target of climbing
the “big one” – Mount Everest, at
29,029 feet the tallest mountain in
the world.
“I always enjoyed reading about
mountain climbers, so I decided
I’d just try climbing one,” said
Douthitt, who lives in Jackson,
KY. “I’d had a relationship break
up and I was looking for something new to get into, so I started
out with Kilimanjaro.”
Douthitt reveled in his ascent
of the African mountain. “I didn’t
have any trouble with the altitude,
so I gradually starting doing the
next easiest ones,” he said. It was
the logical way to build up to the
Holy Grail known as Everest.
Douthitt planned to make his attempt in 2013, but illness that put
an end to the dream.
“Several of us got really bad
diarrhea, so bad that we had to
stay back,” Douthitt said. “Later,
we tried to catch up with the others, but it was too draining. By the
time I caught back up with them
a few days later, I’d lost 22 pounds
in 20 days, and I was just too
weak. I had to pull the plug.”
Since 2010, he had been preparing diligently for the climb, hiking
every weekend and working out
every other day.
“The thing that’s a killer on
most of these (climbs) is carrying
that 50- to 60-pound back pack,”
he said. “The first time I went,
I never really had put the pack
on and I suffered quite a bit.” He
began carrying a 20-pound pack
and added two more pounds each
time he went hiking. “I would
gradually get up to where I could
carry a 6