69 Year Old Double Amputee Scales Everest

June 12, 2018, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

43 Years and four tries after his first attempt at climbing Mount Everest Xia Boyu has reached the top of the world. In attempt to fulfill his dream Mr. Xia first tried to scale the mountain as a young man in 1975 but he got severe frostbite and first had both feet amputated and then both legs in an attempt to save his life.

Mr. Xia went back again in 2014, 2015 and in 2016. His last attempt was likely the most frustrating as a blizzard forced him back down from the peak when he was less than 100 metres from the summit of the mighty beast.  In his failed attempts he has seen the ravages that the mountain can deal climbers. He faced terrible weather, avalanches and earthquakes along with the frost bite that left him a double amputee.

Finally, in May at the age of 69 he became the first double amputee to summit Everest from Nepal, and the third double amputee to reach the peak overall. Mr. Xia used prosthetics in his climb. That made the climb even more difficult as he couldn’t feel the ground under his feet. He had no learn to use other cues to sense the stability of the surface that he was standing on. Climbing with prosthetics also requires a significant amount of body strength simply to maintain balance.

It is truly an incredible journey and his focus and determination are admirable.

photo credit:  https://rockandice.com/climbing-news/xia-boyu-69-year-old-double-amputee-summits-everest/

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

It is important that you review your accident benefit file with one of our experienced personal injury / car accident lawyers to ensure that you obtain access to all your benefits which include, but are limited to, things like physiotherapy, income replacement benefits, vocational retraining and home modifications.