Politics & Government
U.S. Airman From Santee on Journey to Summit Mount Everest
The USAF Seven Summits Challenge team hopes to summit in mid-May and become the first group of active-duty U.S. service members to reach the top.
By Beth Ford Roth, KPBS
U.S. Air Force Capt. Colin Merrin, a GPS satellite operations mission commander from Santee in San Diego County, is part of an Air Force team participating in a 50-day journey to climb Mount Everest.
The USAF Seven Summits Challenge team hopes to summit in mid-May, and become the first group of active-duty U.S. service members to reach the top of Everest.
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Team co-founder Capt. Rob Marshall made a call home Monday from Everest Base Camp, according to the Air Force News Service, in which he explain the team's strategy for the grueling climb:
"You can climb Everest at a faster pace, but from our research, we are giving ourselves the best chance to acclimatize and the optimal amount of time to reach the top."
Find out what's happening in Santeewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In a brief bio of Merrin listed on the USAF Seven Summits Challenge website, the climber gives a William James quote as his inspiration:
“Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own; sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstruction.”
Merrin is currently based at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado.
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