Burbank mountaineer conquers the Seven Summits
BY MARIO AGUIRRE,
10/19/2007
He`s skied the North and South poles, conquered the Seven Summits and planted the flags of the United States and Armenia atop Mount Everest.
Now, 47-year-old adventurer Karo Ovasapyan has set his sights on Greenland, where he hopes to make a 285-mile cross-country skiing trek across the icy landscape of the world`s biggest island.
"It`s another challenge. You`re challenging yourself," said Ovasapyan, who lives in Burbank. "It gives your life more meaning."
While Ovasapyan`s upcoming journey will be grueling - he`ll take only the supplies he can carry in his backpack - it will be far less strenuous than the 61-day expedition to the top of the world.
"I can`t describe how it felt like, standing on top of Mount Everest," said Ovasapyan, the first Armenian to conquer the so-called Seven Summits - the 29,035-foot behemoth in the Himalayas, as well as the tallest mountains on the six other continents.
"People ask me what I was thinking when I got up there, and I tell them that I lost my dream because I was dreaming of it for 25 years and I was finally here."
Ovasapyan grew up in Charentsavan, Armenia, one of six children in a family passionate about the outdoors. While his father organized regular weekend camping trips to the nearby mountains, Ovasapyan wanted to emulate his Uncle Samuel, a mountaineer whose photographs were prominent in the family scrapbooks.
"I always dreamed of being the person
in those pictures wearing the backpack and having the mountain in the background.
"I think every kid tries to copy someone. For some people, they want to be actors. For others, they want to be singers. For me, it was my uncle. I wanted to be like him."
Ovasapyan buried himself in books dedicated to Arctic explorers. He wrestled competitively, building a muscular physique well-suited to mountaineering. He spent many a winter night sleeping on the balcony of his family`s home, getting used to sleeping in below-freezing temperatures.
And, he said, "there was always a Karo inside of me who wanted to see the sun rise from Mount Everest`s summit."
But Ovasapyan had to make a living. He served in the Siberian National Army, then returned to Armenia as a wrestling coach. After a year, he moved to Russia, joining his Uncle Movel in a cabinet-making business.
In 1989, they moved to Glendale - a city with the nation`s largest Armenian population - and with two of Karo`s brothers started a cabinet-making business in neighboring Burbank. And he began climbing mountains, tackling smaller peaks at first, then embarking on bigger challenges.
In January 2001, he found himself skiing in Antarctica with mountaineer Jon Krakauer, who wrote the best-selling "Into Thin Air" after four members of the author`s climbing team died on Everest in 1996.
At the South Pole, Krakauer was filming "Mountain of Ice," a documentary about Mount Vinson for PBS` "Nova" series. He included a scene of Ovasapyan, clad in his underwear, bathing in the snow.
"When you love this sport the way I do, you don`t care about comfort," Ovasapyan said. "Of course it`s cold, but you don`t care.
"You know what`s waiting for you up in the summit."
Ovasapyan signed on with teams of elite mountaineers and began lining up corporate sponsors to defray the steep cost of scaling the world`s highest peaks.
He embarked on a training regimen, heading to Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the continental U.S. at 14,494 feet. Realizing that the summit of Mount Everest was more than twice that elevation, Ovasapyan enhanced his workouts by dragging a heavy tire from a rope tied to his belt.
He also steeled himself for the mental and emotional challenges of the expeditions. The death of a training partner, killed in a plunge after being struck by a falling rock, was a reminder of the danger that accompanies every step.
"That was just really warning me to be extremely careful," Ovasapyan said.
"That can happen to anyone at any moment. But you know that going in because that`s the life you`ve chosen. "You know how dangerous it is and you`re always risking your life out there when you do that."
Ovasapyan began his Seven Summits quest in the fall of 2002, scaling Aconcagua in the Andes Mountains of South America. He made two major climbs in 2004 - Denali (also known as Mount McKinley) in Alaska and Mount Elbrus in Russia.
While many Seven Summits climbers delay Everest until the end, Ovasapyan didn`t want to take the chance that anything would interfere with his lifelong dream.
"Many things can happen from one mountain to the next. You could have injuries and not continue," he said. "Who knows what could have happened, if I would have lived, before ever reaching Mount Everest?"
A member of a Russian climbing team organized by the 7 Summits Club, Ovasapyan flew to Tibet in the spring of 2005. The 15 climbers and 10 Sherpas began a two-month excursion up the north ridge of Everest, camping at ever-higher altitudes as they adjusted to the thinning oxygen.
About a week before his own summit attempt, Ovasapyan was monitoring the radio at base camp - about 17,700 feet - listening as two Slovenian climbers reached the top despite high winds and whiteout conditions.
The weather deteriorated as the pair descended, and one of them apparently had problems with his oxygen tank. Marko Lihteneker became a fatality of Everest, one of the roughly 5 percent of climbers who perish on the mountain. About 6:15 a.m. May 30, 2005 - one day after the 52nd anniversary of Edmund Hillary`s conquest of Everest - Ovasapyan and his team made their own summit bid. There were six Sherpa porters in the group, along with Ovasapyan and a half-dozen other climbers. They included Nikolay Cherny, who at age 65 was making his fourth attempt to reach the top.
Breathing supplemental oxygen, they left Camp 4 - at an altitude of roughly 27,400 feet - and began their ascent of the three "steps," or rock climbs, that would take them to the top.
Ovasapyan pushed himself hard and reached the pyramid summit ahead of the others in his group.
There, 5 and 1/2 vertical miles above sea level, Ovasapyan planted the flags of his native and adopted countries, as well as a pennant honoring American POWs.
"I`m an American citizen and I respect that. The POW flag is respect to the soldiers fighting for this country and for those lost giving their lives to this country.
"And I`m an Armenian, so I represent Armenia, too," he said. After returning the flags to his backpack - he carries them on all of his expeditions - Ovasapyan began the descent, a trek made even more treacherous by exhaustion, dehydration and shrinking oxygen supplies.
Even two years later, other members of Ovasapyan`s team remember his camaraderie and selflessness during the ordeal. "In all my years working as a guide, I`ve never met a person so helpful to others," said Mingma Gelu, a Sherpa of Tibet who worked as a guide on the expedition.
"Karo has shown how strong he is by completing the Seven Summits and helping others along the way reach similar goals."
Just six months after his victory over Everest, Ovasapyan ascended Kilimanjaro in Africa.
In 2006, he climbed Kosciuszko in Australia and Vinson in Antarctica - the last after an aborted attempt to run a marathon at the South Pole - making Ovasapyan only the 197th climber to achieve the Seven Summits. One more climber has achieved that goal since then.
Last year also saw him conquering Mount Rainier in Washington state, and Mount Ararat in Turkey - a site revered by Armenians as their spiritual home.
"For climbers, it`s a symbolic mountain," Ovasapyan said. "But for Armenians, it`s holy."
After returning home to Southern California, Ovasapyan was recognized for his accomplishments by the Burbank City Council, as well as by leaders of the local Armenian community.
"First and foremost, Karo`s achievement is symbolic of our community as we strive to reach new heights. He embodies the philosophy we embrace that a single person can achieve great things and make a difference," said Zanku Armenian, a board member of the Armenian National Committee of America. Ovasapyan talks openly when asked about his adventures, but they`re not something he brings up with the customers of his family`s woodworking business.
"It`s not that I didn`t want a lot of people to know about this, but I just don`t tell too many people about it," he said.
"I didn`t do it to prove to other people that I could do this. I did it for myself because I knew I could do it."
Staff Writer Naush Boghossian contributed to this report.
-- Mountaineering challenge Karo Ovasapyan of Burbank is one of 198 climbers - and the only Armenian - to scale the Seven Summits.
Aconcagua Nov. 10, 2002
Elbrus April 7, 2004
Denali July 2, 2004
Everest May 30, 2005
Kilimanjaro Nov. 25, 2005
Kosciuszko Feb. 2, 2006
Vinson Dec. 18, 2005
