Korean with no hands plans to climb Mount Everest

Mount Everest

KATHMANDU, Nepal (Reuters) -- A Korean climber with no hands will try to scale the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, this month, Nepal's tourism ministry said.

Kim Hong-Bin, whose frostbitten hands had to be amputated after he climbed Alaska's Mount McKinley in 1991, cannot hold an ice ax or a ski pole and cannot attach himself to a fixed rope.

Instead, the 35-year-old climber uses his teeth or his arms to grasp things.

Kim told Reuters before he left base camp that he was confident of making it to the top of the 29,035-foot mountain and that climbing without hands was "no problem" at all.

The Korean has done some climbing since he lost his hands.

Kim is part of a South Korean expedition that will try to scale both Everest, and the 27,940-foot Mount Lhotse, the world's fourth highest mountain.

A disabled climber has conquered Everest before. Tom Whittaker, an American with one leg, reached the summit in May 1998.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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