Inglis achieved his boyhood dream
Some human beings simply can't get enough adventure.
Barely three months after becoming the first double amputee to conquer Mt Everest, and less than two months after surgery to remove five fingertips and more of his legs, Mark Inglis went paragliding over Lake Wakatipu.
He was in Queenstown - New Zealand's adventure capital - for a motivational speaking engagement, when up came an invitation to make his first tandem paraglide over the serene glacial lake. Never mind that the stumps of his legs were still raw and healing from further amputation.
'I just landed on my bum', the zealous New Zealander laughs. 'It was fantastic.'
It seems nothing can stop Inglis - mountaineer, Paralympian, acclaimed winemaker, innovator, husband and father-of-three. Not even the consequences and controversies born from his successful scaling of the world's highest peak in May 2006 - the frostbite and damage to his stumps on the difficult descent, teamed with the criticism that his party left a dying climber, Englishman David Sharp, on the mountain on the day he reached the top.
While waiting for a new set of prosthetic limbs, so he could learn to walk again, Inglis carried on the same frantic pace that he lives by - travelling the country delivering motivational speeches and life coaching, fundraising for Cambodian amputees, and writing a book about his Everest quest.
'I have no regrets about Everest. What an experience,' he says. 'Sure, it had a couple of downsides. But, hey, I had my legs off at 22, so a little surgery when I’m 46 is nothing.
'Would I do it again? Hell yeah. But I'd do it 10 times better - I'd be that much smarter. I'd manage my stumps much better. I'm not sure I could manage the decisions of the final day any better, and I certainly couldn’t have saved David.'
In knocking off Everest, Inglis achieved a boyhood dream - one that he thought was shattered in 1982 when he lost both legs below the knee to frostbite after being trapped in an ice cave on Aoraki Mt Cook.
As a child growing up in the shadow of Aoraki Mt Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain, his hero was Sir Edmund Hillary, the Kiwi beekeeper who became the first man to climb Everest.
'He is such an inspiration to me; that's why I've been mountaineering since I was 12,' he says. 'I thought I had lost the dream forever for 10 years or more.'
But when he climbed Aoraki Mt Cook in 2002, with the help of prosthetic limbs, he realised Everest was achievable. 'Climbing a mountain gives you tools you can use for the rest of your life. It may sound cocky, but it gives you that much more strength - if I can do that, I can do anything,' he said.
Even though he speaks with gusto of tackling Mt Everest again, he admits there are other things in life that now demand his attention. Everests, he says, come in all sorts of guises.
'I have some new legs to get walking again. It will be at least a year before I can walk the way I want to walk,' he says.
He wants to take his own brand of sports food, PeakFuel, to the world. He has created the energy gels and re-hydration drinks himself - he has a first-class honours degree in biochemistry and is an accomplished winemaker, having worked for one of the country’s top vineyards, Montana, for 10 years.
'I'm a winemaker, scientist and adventurer, so I think I can create something pretty special with PeakFuel,' he says.
Inglis continues to work in the wine industry - one of his life passions - as consulting chief winemaker for Marlborough vineyard Cellier le Brun, who create some of New Zealand's premier sparkling wines. 'Winemaking is so much like mountain climbing. They share a common trait - perfectionism. You have to do it the perfect way and if it can’t be this time, you try again until it is,' he says.
'New Zealand has such vibrant wines. We took sauvignon blanc to the world and challenged people's perceptions; now we are doing the same with pinot noir. 'I love wine and I love food. The biggest decision at our house every night is a toss-up between food and wine. I love to cook when I’m home - I do the majority of our cooking. It's the reason I do so much cycling and mountain climbing, or else I would be the size of a truck!'
New Zealand beef, lamb and seafood feature prominently on the Inglis family dinner table, and Mark's favourite meal is briefly seared Nelson scallops in balsamic vinegar. 'Everywhere you go in New Zealand, you know you will get great food and great wine,' he says.
He travels the country giving motivational talks, and continues to raise funds for the Cambodia Trust, helping landmine amputees (the Everest expedition raised over $70,000 for the charity), and spinal injury patients in Nepal. He is also setting up a charitable trust called Limbs For All, and writing his next book, Legs On Everest, which should be released this Christmas.
'How do I balance everything? Not particularly well. But I have to keep going. My family will tell you I’m always saying 'Oh my God, what will I do next?' I get bored too easily. There are too many new things to do out there,' he says.
Squeezed in amongst these exploits is his determination to spend time with his family - his wife, Anne, and their three children, Amanda, Jeremy and Lucy. The family home is in Hamner Springs, a beautiful alpine village with thermal hot springs, 90 minutes north of Christchurch.
'I love travelling to other places in the world, but the best part is flying back into New Zealand. You come into Christchurch and it's clean and green - that's such an apt statement. You can smell New Zealand - the freshness of the air, the freshness of the attitude,' he says.
'My favourite places in New Zealand are where my friends are. I have great memories in Queenstown and Twizel, and Mt Cook always because it's where I grew up.'
'I love how we have every environment crammed into two tiny capsules - the North Island and the South Island. It gives us Kiwis a huge advantage when we head out into the world.'
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