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Jeff Mathy's Quest
Saturday, July 13, 2002
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Elbrus 2002 Photo
Jeff Mathy
"The Lipton Kid"

Hello cybernauts, this is Vern Tejas with Alpine Ascents Mount Elbrus Expedition, Team UpDogs. Team member Jeff Mathy is with us. He's a pretty remarkable young man and someone I've been very impressed with and I'd like you to get to know him.

Vern: Tell us something about yourself.
Hi, my name is Jeff Mathy. I'm 23 years old and I'm trying to become the youngest person in the world to climb the Seven Summits. I've been with Vern and Alpine Ascents on a number of trips and that's how I started climbing. I'm very excited to have this opportunity; I'm very thankful to my sponsor, Lipton Tea, to make this all possible and it's just an amazing adventure being here at the high camp on Mount Elbrus ready to go for the summit. I'm just thankful everyday that I have this opportunity.

Vern: How far along are you in this quest?
Hopefully with our successful summit of Mount Elbrus tomorrow, I'll have completed six of the seven summits and all I'll have left is Mount Everest and Carstenz Pyramid, I'm planning to do all eight of the seven.

"I'd like to continue talking to students across the nation and spread the word about environmentalism and about just how great mountaineering is..."

I was very close to summitting Mount Everest this year. We had a solid team and we were just about to make our final summit attempt from Base Camp and I ended up getting sick down at Base Camp. I drank some unfiltered, cold lemonade and it was just some bad luck at the end of the trip.

I'm excited to have some really strong sponsorship behind me. Lipton Tea has been supportive of me 100% and they want me to go back next year and try it again. So my confidence is 100% and I'll be happy to spend time with Vern there again next year and I'm going to spend the next year training hard and getting ready for the climb of my life.

Vern: So ultimately when you accomplish this, what is it going to mean to you?
Well, when I first started thinking about climbing, my first real high-altitude climb was back in 1999 when I climbed Kilimanjaro with Alpine Ascents for the first time, and since then the Seven Summits has become a personal challenge for me.

I've always loved camping and backpacking, but climbing at high altitude just makes everything a lot more exciting. It's a huge adventure for me. And part of that is me wanting to share my adventure with others so we set up a website at LiptonT.com where people can go and read dispatches that I give from the mountains. And also I talk to a lot of students at schools, in my hometown and all over, telling them just how great the outdoors is and how much excitement can be found just being out with nature, and enjoying the environment, and preserving it and making sure that it's there for future use.

And I'd like to continue talking to students across the nation and spread the word about environmentalism and about just how great mountaineering is as a sport and a personal challenge.'

Vern:
I want to thank you and thank Lipton for making this all possible. Ciao for now, this is Vern Tejas signing off from Mount Elbrus.

Vern Tejas, Alpine Ascents International Guide and Jeff Mathy, Climber, MountainZone.com Correspondents





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