Lucky escape for Athlone's Tony in dramatic mountain climb

Athlone man Tony Diskin had a lucky escape last week during a climb of Mount McKinley (Denali) in Alaska, one of the world's most treacherous mountains, when weather conditions changed as the climbers approached the summit. Tony, who is an experienced climber, undertook the climb with his friend Jerry O'Sullivan from Cork, as well as Swiss national Beat Niederer, Lawrence Cutler, from New York and their experienced guide Dave Staeheli from Wasilla, Alaska. Tony suffered frost bite on his left hand, but was more fortunate than his fellow climbers, Beat Niederer, who lost his life during the climb, and Jerry O'Sullivan, who broke his leg and suffered severe frost bite. The accident is now under investigation. The Denali National Park Service said it is debriefing the survivors and it has set up a Serious Accident Investigation Team. Speaking to the Westmeath Independent from Alaska yesterday (Tuesday), Tony said that Jerry was one of his best friends and he had been at his side in the hospital every day. Jerry will be undergoing surgery and Tony said his road to recovery will be a long one. However, he added that Jerry is in good spirits. Tony will be coming home this week after Jerry's sister flies out to be with her brother in the hospital. On his own injuries, Tony said he had suffered frost bite to his left hand, which was swollen, but he was not in any danger of losing any digits. Speaking about his journey home, Tony said: "I came out here with Jerry, it's not a good feeling to be coming home on my own." Tony added that he and Jerry had been mountaineering for some time and were experienced climbers, who had been climbing for years. He explained that the climbers had been at camp at 17,000ft and were about nine hours from the summit. Tony said it was a very warm day with no wind when they set out from this camp for the summit but ten hours later when they were just ten minutes from the summit the weather conditions turned and the wind picked up.