It was the heroic drive to climb the world’s highest peak that led Heather Macdonald to plumb the depths within and help others to do so.
Macdonald of Port Townsend twice almost climbed Mount Everest — in 1994 and 1998. She came within six hours of reaching the top of the 29,035-foot summit during a two-month journey, but was forced to turn back.
Today, she works with foster children at Jefferson Mental Health and plans to go to school to become a therapist.
Between the two events lies the story of an obsessive pursuit to climb the mountain, a lost mother, pride, and of the famed British mountaineer George Leigh Mallory, who died in the first serious attempt to conquer Mount Everest in the 1920s.
Mallory’s body was recovered near the summit of the mountain by an expedition in 1999, an event Macdonald, 32, was personally involved with.
Macdonald will give a talk and slide show on Mallory and “What it takes to climb Mount Everest” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Port Angeles Senior and Community Center, 328 E. Seventh St., Port Angeles.
Admission to the event, sponsored by Olympic Mountaineering, is $5.
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The rest of this story appears in Thursday’s Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.
