Pat Falvey Irish and Worldwide Adventures



	To view current news updates from the Irish Seven Summits Expeditions click here ------------------------------------------------------------ November 29th < /font>Irish team completes the Sixth of Seven Pat and Clare have side tracked to Australia and today, Tuesday November 29th, climbed the sixth mountain, Mt Kosciuszko, in their Seven Summits challenge. Although it was cold, wet, windy and sleeting, it was a relaxing summit before the ordeal of Antarctica. Statement from Australia (Pat and Clare) "We are delighted to be approaching the final stage of this challenge. It has been an amazing journey as Irish adventurers and now that we have completed Kosciuszko in Australia, we are very excited about the expedition in Antarctica. We have no doubt that this expedition will be demanding, but we believe that as an Irish team, we will succeed in completing our challenge of climbing Mt Vinson." Clare and Pat head for Punta Arenas in Chile on tomorrow 30th November, where they will be met their team mate, John Dowd, from Waterville County Kerry, on December 2nd. The team then depart to the Antarctic Continent by plane where they will have some time to prepare their gear before flying out once again this time to a glacier located within reach of Mt. Vinson. ------------------------------------------------------------ Irish Seven Summits Expedition heads to 80 degrees South, Antarctica Dr Clare O'Leary and Pat Falvey headed south to Australia on the 23rd of November to bag Kosciuszko (2228m) the 6th and smallest of the peaks on the final leg of their challenge. They then fly via New Zealand to Chile before embarking on what is without doubt the coldest of all of the continental high points in the heart of one of the most remote places in the world. Photo left: Final checks on communication gear Mt. Vinson (4897m) in the Ellsworth mountain range situated 600 miles from the South Pole is the finale of the challenge. If successful Dr Clare O Leary’s will become the first Irish Female to complete the Seven Summits, of which only 14 other women world wide has completed. Pat, who is the only Irish person to have completed the challenge, if also successful will have completed it twice, of which only a hand full of people worldwide have so far achieved. John Dowd will meet up with the team in Punta Arenas, Chile their departure point for the Antarctic. This will be John’s second continental high point, having summited McKinley in June. Before they departed Dr Clare O'Leary commented… ‘ I can hardly believe that we are starting out on the final leg of the seven summits. I think Mt Vinson (in Antarctica) will be one of the most amazing climbs of the seven and can't wait to see this spectacular continent. I guess at this stage I'm feeling excited more than anything.’ More dispatches will be posted on their progress soon ------------------------------------------------------------ Objectives • First Irish female to complete the seven summits • First Irish person to complete the seven summits twice (Pat Falvey completed his first seven summit challenge in 1997) Climbing the Seven Summits About 110 mountaineers have climbed all 'Seven Summits' - the highest peak on each of the seven continents. The first was Dick Bass, an American businessman, on April 30, 1985. Asia - Mt. Everest, Tibet-Nepal - 29,035ft/8,850m South America - Mt. Aconcagua, Argentina - 22,834ft/6,960m North America - Mt. McKinley (Denali), United States, Alaska - 20,320ft/6,194m Africa - Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania - 19,340ft/5,995m Europe - Elbrus, Russia/Georgia - 18,510ft/5,642m Antarctica - Vinson Massif, Ellsworth Mts. - 16,066ft/4,897m Australia - Kosciusko, Australia - 7,310ft/2,228m Some climbers believe that the true Seven Summits should include Carstensz Pyramid (16,023 ft.) in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, rather than Australia's Kosciusko. Carstensz is the highest summit in Australia/Oceania, but strictly speaking, Oceania is not a continent. The Continents A continent is defined as a large unbroken land mass completely surrounded by water, although in some cases continents are (or were in part) connected by land bridges. The seven continents are North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. The island groups in the Pacific are often called Oceania but this name does not imply that scientists consider them the remains of a continent. Political considerations have often overridden geographical facts when it came to naming continents. Geographically, Europe, including the British Isles, is a large western peninsula of the continent of Asia; and many geographers, when referring to Europe and Asia, speak of the Eurasian continent. But traditionally, Europe is counted as a separate continent, with the Ural and the Caucasus mountains forming the line of demarcation between Europe and Asia. To the south of Europe, Asia has an odd-shaped peninsula jutting westward, which has a large number of political subdivisions. The northern section is taken up by Turkey; to the south of Turkey there are Syria, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and a number of smaller Arab countries. All these are part of Asia. Traditionally, the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean is also considered to be part of Asia. The Caribbean islands, Central America, and Greenland are considered part of North America. Continental Drift and Plate-Tectonics Theory Source: U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Geological Survey According to the theory of continental drift, the world was made up of a single continent through most of geologic time. That continent eventually separated and drifted apart, forming into the seven continents we have today. The first comprehensive theory of continental drift was suggested by the German meteorologist Alfred Wegener in 1912. The hypothesis asserts that the continents consist of lighter rocks that rest on heavier crustal materialósimilar to the manner in which icebergs float on water. Wegener contended that the relative positions of the continents are not rigidly fixed but are slowly movingóat a rate of about one yard per century. According to the generally accepted plate-tectonics theory, scientists believe that Earth's surface is broken into a number of shifting slabs or plates, which average about 50 miles in thickness. These plates move relative to one another above a hotter, deeper, more mobile zone at average rates as great as a few inches per year. Most of the world's active volcanoes are located along or near the boundaries between shifting plates and are called plate-boundary volcanoes. The peripheral areas of the Pacific Ocean Basin, containing the boundaries of several plates, are dotted with many active volcanoes that form the so-called Ring of Fire. The Ring provides excellent examples of plate-boundary volcanoes, including Mount St. Helens. However, some active volcanoes are not associated with plate boundaries, and many of these so-called intra-plate volcanoes form roughly linear chains in the interior of some oceanic plates. The Hawaiian Islands provide perhaps the best example of an intra-plate volcanic chain, developed by the northwest-moving Pacific plate passing over an inferred 'hot spot' that initiates the magma-generation and volcano-formation process.