Field Day

Everest makes and breaks those brave enough to attempt to climb it. It's a mountain of dreams - some fulfilled, some shattered. Here's how one farmer achieved his dream

It was unfinished business until May 13. Then things changed - because that was the day Chris Brown reached the summit of Everest, fulfilling a lifelong ambition and guaranteeing himself a place in the record books.

"I knew I was going to be a different person from then on," says the North Yorks farmer who, at 52, became one of the oldest men to scale the world's highest mountain.

"It was like scoring the winning goal in the World Cup final. Like winning the Lottery. It was a fantastic feeling. You know your life has changed. I felt humbled and privileged."

Chris's desire to climb Everest dates back to 1953. It was Coronation year and, as a boy, he heard Hillary and Tensing had reached the summit. "I've waited ever since then to do it."

This marked his third attempt at the 29,000ft peak, with expeditions in 1993 and 1997 ending in disappointment. Two years ago, he was within 1500ft of the top. "I knew I had to try once more," he says. "I couldn't live with myself otherwise. I trained religiously and set out to give it my best shot."

Training involved running 60 miles a week, twice-weekly trips to the gym and regular visits to the climbing wall. Farming, too, was good preparation. "It built up my stamina."

But a little luck was needed, too. A planned attempt to "top out" on May 4 was thwarted by bad weather. Then conditions got worse and, in the face of tent-flatteningly strong winds, the party wondered if the chance had been missed. For Chris, the last chance. "I thought we had blown it," he remembers thinking.

Then the weather improved and he embarked on the final leg, climbing through a long, still night. "We were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. There was no wind and a lovely sunrise."

"I was waiting so long and was so hyped up that when the chance came I had to grab it and go like hell."

Chris spent 45 minutes on the summit on the morning of May 13. "You know you are on top of the world. You know inside yourself that you are a different person."

It was too early to relax, though. Too early for celebrations. The descent was fraught with peril. "You know you have to get down - you know you are not safe."

This is, remember, one of the most physically and mentally draining experiences known to man. "It's the hardest thing I've ever done - it's like running two marathons back to back."

It was only later, part way down, that the emotion hit him. Only when he was reunited with his Canadian friend, Dave Rodney, did it sink in what they had achieved. Only then, really, did they realise they had made a piece of history. "We were laughing and crying together."

The farmer achieved something that fewer than 800 people have done. Something that fewer than 40 British people have done. It also made him one of only 10 Britons to have scaled the seven big peaks on each of the continents.

Such achievements are all the more spectacular because of his age. "I don't feel 52," he says, back on his Baldersby farm. He doesn't look it, either. He looks lithe and strong and like a man who, having done something truly extraordinary, can now relax and take a special pleasure from the routine of everyday life.

"We are so fortunate to live where we do. I'm so fortunate to be a farmer."

Besides, there are more than enough memories to be going on with for a while. Ringing his wife, Susan, from summit camp to tell her the news and tell her he was coming home. Flying back into Britain and seeing all the greenery after nothing but whiteness. Eating chicken after not having meat for nine weeks. A hot cup of tea. Farming, again.

A stone lighter than when he set off in March, Chris is now taking a break from too strenuous exercise. There'll be some running, in time more marathons. But no more mountains. "That was my dream. I'm not going to do any more dangerous things. I know I have been lucky to achieve my dream of getting to the top and coming back safely."

The whole expedition was, after all, fraught with peril. Risks of frostbite, snow-blindness and exhaustion were omnipresent. Everest regularly claims lives - and one of Chris's party, 22-year-old Mike Matthews, didn't make it down.

Chris now plans to use his new-found fame to help raise money for schizophrenia sufferers, a long-term project of his. "You can climb every mountain in the world but Everest is so special to everyone that they want to know about it."

And just mentioning the word Everest brings a smile to his face. "I can't believe I've done it. It will always be in my memory that I stood on top of the world. Nothing can ever take that away. That will be there for ever."

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