Record breaking Limerick man from Dromroe, Rhebogue, Mark Quinn, who at 27 became the youngest person in Ireland to conquer Mount Everest said it feels "amazing" to be back.
Mark was afforded a heroes welcome as he landed at Shannon Airport on Sunday night after a 16 hour plane journey taking in Kathmandu, Doha and London Heathrow.
The adventurer - who only started climbing two years ago - had spent six weeks in various camps on the way to the summit of the worlds highest mountain.
For a lot of this time, he had to wait at different campsites in the hope that conditions were appropriate for his group to climb to the peak, watching movies and reading books to pass the time.
But two weeks ago he reached the 30,000 foot peak of Mount Everest, where he placed a badge of the Shane Geoghegan Trust - which he hopes to raise 30,000 Euro for - as well as a flag celebrating Limerick's year as European City of Sport.
Speaking to the Limerick Chronicle after landing, Mark was overwhelmed by the welcome he received. He will celebrate his achievement with a homecoming party this Saturday night. "It feels amazing to be back. A bunch of people were waiting at the airport for me, and it was great. I have never experienced that before, and I don't think I ever will again really. It was brilliant, absolutely brilliant," he said.
He said reaching the summit was a "very harrowing, but very rewarding experience".
The night before he made the final ascent, he admitted he was unable to sleep. But he did not each much either to ensure the oxygen in his body was aiding his muscles, rather than processing food.
He said: "We ate very little the night before. You need oxygen in your muscles, you cannot have it wasted processing food. We obviously didn't sleep the night before, so we were going up really tired, so it was absolutely the toughest thing we had done in our lives."
Mark, whose group comprised of seven other people, admitted when he reached the summit, he was too tired to feel elated.
"There was happiness obviously, but there was not this amazing elation 'top of the world' feeling. Obviously taking pictures was a high priority. Then we just took in the view, before preparing to come down, " he said.
Mark spent between 15 and 30 minutes at the peak before starting down the most treacherous part of his adventure - the decent.
Asked what he missed most while he was away, Mark said: "Friends and family would be top of my list. But I also missed the good old Irish Breakfast! Everything about home really."
He has not yet decided whether he will scale any of the earths other mega-mountains. "I will have a think about it and talk to my family over the next couple of weeks."
He paid tribute to his friends and colleagues who have been "tirelessly" working to raise funds, while as he put it "I was in a tent reading books."
To make a donation to the Shane Geoghegan Trust visit: www.highaltitudeireland.org
Source: Limerick Chronicle
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