"THE first time I went climbing in Switzerland I loved it," recalls Omar el- Samra, adding that, soon afterwards, he started training in earnest. In 2007, he became the first Egyptian to climb Mount Everest. It was an arduous expedition, so much so that another member of the team died during the ascent. "We cried and cried when he was killed in an avalanche. We were very upset but we had to continue," he told The Egyptian Gazette during a recent seminar in Cairo. El-Samra reached the summit at 9:49am Nepal time (roughly 7.19am Egyptian time), on May 17, 2007. Born in London on August 11, 1978, el-Samra moved to Cairo when he was only a few weeks old. He went to El- Alsun School and graduated from the American University in Cairo (AUC) in 2000 with a BA in Economics and a minor in business administration. El-Samra now lives in Cairo and runs his own adventure travel company to exotic destinations worldwide. He climbed his first snowy mountain in the Swiss Alps at the age of 16. Since then he has climbed and trekked extensively in the UK, Himalayas and the Alps, as well as the Andean, Patagonian and Central American mountain ranges. Other adventures include traversing the Costa Rican jungle in three weeks, cycling across the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and around Andalusia in Spain, as well as from London to Paris. In 2007, Omar joined Ben Stephens (England), Victoria James (Wales) and Greg Maud (South Africa) in putting together an expedition to climb Mount Everest from its south side. They were led by five-time Everest summiteer Kenton Cool (England). El-Samra had just completed his second climbing trip to the Peruvian Andes to "get climbing out of my system", before beginning his MBA. In the beginning, there were roughly 30 to 40 interested parties but, after one month of training, planning and a climbing trip in the Scottish winter, that number had quickly dwindled to four. These four became the core Everest team and trained together for 18 months preceding the Everest expedition, which began in March 2007 and lasted for just over seven weeks. When asked about what sparked the idea of climbing Everest, el-Samra said: "Everest is regarded as one of the most challenging of human conquests. I was passionate about climbing and a great believer that one should always challenge one's own perceptions of where one's boundaries lie." He added that Everest seemed like an irrational challenge for an Egyptian, so he embraced it wholeheartedly. This feeling grew stronger when he realised that no Egyptian had ever attempted it. For el-Samra, it was also a matter of national pride to raise the Egyptian flag on the highest point on Earth. The Egyptian climber and his teammates are now planning to climb the highest mountains on every continent. Their next challenge is Kilimanjaro in Africa, that they're going to tackle next month. “The Right to Climb” initiative, led by el-Samra and his teammates, consists of a team of committed climbers striving to raise awareness and generate funds for the cause of mental disability in Egypt ��" and, in the process, climb Africa's highest mountain. "Our team features 25 climbers, but 90 per cent of them will be doing Mount Kilimanjaro for the first time," he explains. "Kilimanjaro is not a difficult climb. I've done it three times before." Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest freestanding mountain as well as the fourth most prominent mountain in the world, rising 5,900m or about 22,000ft from the base. Proceeds from 'The Right to Climb" will help nourish additional projects, including the development of vocational training that will open up future job opportunities, establish community workshops to prevent discrimination against special needs youth and secure a stable source of income for mentally disabled children by selling products they make. According to el-Samra, the goal is to allow people to discover more about themselves and the world, while benefiting the society that we live in. It certainly promises to be the experience of a lifetime. "We are planning to set up a team in Egypt, but it's very costly. The team are collecting money for these people to offer them a fantastic opportunity. I'd like sponsors to help us achieve this dream," he says. When asked about preparations for the Kilimanjaro trip, he stresses that the team are training hard and that it will take seven days for them to do the climb.
