Dallas oil guy, 51, climbs Mount Everest

by PegNews wire

Dallas oilman Robie Vaughn, 51, climbed to the top of Mount Everest, which might possibly be of marginal interest if not for the number of elements in this story that make it worthwhile:

• Someone in the story uses the word "dadgum", i.e.: "You're so dadgum tired," said fellow climber Dick Bass.
• It's an opportunity to use a pretty picture.
• 51 is not old but still, it's no small potatoes to be climbing a mountain at that age.
• What is it lately with people and their "mountain-climbing disease"? Some of whom have been stranded and/or died, like the guy from Dallas who died on Oregon's Mount Hood last December.
• Related: Vaughn nearly stopped this climb because his feet were so cold that he feared injury -- then went ahead and finished the climb anyway.
• "Robie"?
• Related: Wife's name is "Fallon".
• Robie and Fallon wrote a book about "the daredevil sport of skeleton." Odd name for a sport, "skeleton" involves an athlete sledding head-first, at 70 mph.

Posted by T.G.