Eyes on the summit

Everest next on climber’s quest to top eight tallest peaks

By Lynn Taylor Rick, Journal staff | Wednesday, March 19, 2008

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R.C. Scull knew by age 12 he would climb Mount Everest.

He just didn’t know he’d be doing it only eight years later.

The 20-year-old Rapid City climber leaves March 29 for his Mount Everest summit attempt. He’ll be gone for two months and, if all goes well, he hopes to reach the summit of the world’s tallest mountain by late May.

With that behind him, Scull then plans to continue on his attempt to be the youngest climber to summit the eight tallest mountains in the world. He needs to do so by the end of 2008. After Mount Everest, he will have only three of the eight peaks left.

Looking back, R.C. figures he inherited his passion for climbing from both his outdoorsy family and the Boy Scouts.

The son of Bob and Sharla Scull of Rapid City, R.C. completed his Eagle Scout by age 16 and took an Outward Bound leadership course that same year. The course piqued his interest in alpine climbing.

When R.C. lobbied for more high-altitude training, Bob checked out a class with Alpine Ascents International, a climbing company based in Seattle. He took a six-day course on a glacier in the Cascade Mountains. “I was very, very impressed,” he said.

The next year, the Sculls allowed R.C. to take a two-week mountaineering course with Alpine Ascents. After that class, he was hooked.

Together, father and son have climbed Mount Aconcagua in South America in December 2005, Mount Elbrus in Europe in August 2006, Mount Denali in Alaska in May 2007 and Mount Vinson in Antarctica in December 2007.

The mountains are four of the eight tallest peaks in the world. After Mount Everest, Scull will have only Carstenz Pyramid in Indonesia, Kosciusko in Australia and Kilimanjaro in Africa to complete.

Bob Scull calls high-altitude climbing a brutal sport. “It’s an absolute test of the human body,” he said.

The altitude takes a toll on the human body, slowing movement, speech and even thought. “At 18,000 feet, your body reacts differently,” he said.

During a climb on Mount Aconcagua, a fellow climber suffered from a potentially fatal cerebral edema, an accumulation of fluid around the brain. Another climber fell ill with pulmonary edema, an accumulation of fluid in the lungs brought on by high altitude.

On that same climb, Bob was left bruised and shaken after a dangerous fall. “He was standing next to me. Then, the next minute, he was falling. I was like, in shock,” R.C. said.

For R.C., those experiences reminded him of the risks of high-altitude climbing, but he’s confident in his abilities and training. “I feel like I’m in my element at altitude,” he said.

A well-respected high-altitude guide assured R.C. after watching him climb that he would handle the altitude of Mount Everest well, Bob said. Even so, as a parent, it’s a nerve-wracking time.

“His mother and father are pretty fearful,” Bob said. “But I’ve climbed with him a lot, and on every climb, except for the last climb, R.C. has always been the strongest climber. He knows what he’s doing. I have faith in him.”

Bob isn’t climbing Mount Everest, at least not this time. He plans to accompany his son to Mount Everest base camp and then climb some of the smaller peaks nearby before flying home.

The mountain adventures he’s experienced with his son surprise Bob Scull even today. “In my wildest dreams, I would never have done these things (without him),” he said.

R.C. credits his dad for giving him the drive and ambition to get this far. “He’s always taught me to dream big,” R.C. said.

As he faces one of those big dreams right now, R.C. falls back on the laser focus that has pushed him from Eagle Scout to Everest. With the top of the world in his sights, he plans to fulfill the dream he first imagined eight years ago. “I want to go to the summit,” he said.

Mount Everest

Mount Everest rises 29,035 feet above sea level, holding court as the highest mountain on Earth. R.C. Scull of Rapid City, 20, will climb the peak beginning in April with Alpine Ascents International. He will climb via the South Col route, leaving from Nepal. To find out more about Scull’s Mount Everest climb, go to www.rcscull-sevensummits.com. The Web page will be operating in the coming week. To see cybercasts during the climb, go to www.alpineascents.com.

Contact Lynn Taylor Rick at 394-8414 or lynn.taylorrick@rapidcityjournal.com.