Michael Matty, 48, president of St. Germain Investment Management in Springfield, entered the exclusive "Seven Summits" club, whose membership is reserved for those who climb the tallest peaks on all seven continents.
Longmeadow resident Michael Matty is seen here scaling Mount Everest's Lhotse Face.
SPRINGFIELD -- Michael Matty, of Longmeadow, lost 24 pounds this spring.
He was already thin, but that’s what climbing to the top of Mount Everest will do to a person, said Matty. At high altitudes, “even when you’re sitting down, your body is working very hard,” he said. “Your heart is racing.”
Matty, 48, is president of St. Germain Investment Management in Springfield. He left for Katmandu in March and returned in May.
On reaching the top of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain, Matty entered an exclusive club of about 300 who have mastered the “Seven Summits,” the tallest peaks on the seven continents.
He began his Seven Summits quest five years ago on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. He has since reached the tops of Mounts Vinson in Antarctica, Kosciuzko in Australia, Elbrus in Europe, Denali in North America and Aconcagua in South America.
Everest, in the Himalayas, is the highest at 29,029 feet. Matty prepared for the challenge for a year in the gym and hiking in New Hampshire.
Once at Everest, his group of seven, plus Sherpa guides, “acclimatized” by hiking from their base camp and back a few times, each time resting, then aiming for a higher altitude. This gave their bodies time to generate blood, which becomes thick and sludgy.
It also required them to go over the “Ice Fall,” the most treacherous part of the climb, eight times. The Ice Fall consists of giant chunks of ice, shifting over a crevasse.
Once the climbers went through a tunnel the chunks had formed. The following week, they learned that the tunnel had collapsed into the void.
Mike Matty stops at a camp on the way up Mount Everest, the tallest of the seven-continent high peaks the Longmeadow man has scaled.One climber in the group, a 55-year-old Californian, died of a heart attack on the mountain. At that point, Matty climbed down to the nearest camp alone.
“After doing CPR and shooting adrenaline, you have to ask yourself, ‘How much do I really want to climb this mountain?’” he said.
Not that death was a stranger. Climbers have to fill out “body disposal plan” forms before they even start out. Some ask to have their remains left on the mountain, others to be dropped into crevasses.
At one point, the group passed the body of a Japanese climber who had recently made headlines.
The bond between climbers became strong.
“You’ve got no TV,” said Matty. “You talk about deep, emotional things, rather than about what you do for a living or sports.”
Four out of the group of seven made it to the summit.
One was Matty. In fact, he and his Sherpa guide got to the top of Everest about 40 minutes before the others.
Matty took out a photo of his younger brother, who died last year, and left it at the summit. He was also carrying a small Bible given to him by a shopkeeper at Tower Square, where his office is located.
Matty grew up in New Milford, Conn., and has a master’s degree in economics from Pennsylvania State University. He has two grown daughters and has always loved the outdoors.
Michael Matty celebrated his 48th birthday on Mount Everest, which he climbed this year.
He celebrated his 48th birthday on Everest, where his companions presented him with a chocolate cake.
He said the toughest part of the climb was the descent. Once the climbers passed the Ice Fall one last time, they knew they’d made it.
George Mallory, who died on Mount Everest at age 37, famously said that he climbed a mountain “because it is there.”
Matty sees it differently.
“You climb,” he said, “to see if you’re worthy of your dreams.”
Click here to read Mike Matty’s Mount Everest Journal, which includes numerous firsthand entries about his experiences during the expedition.