Grande Prairie City Manager Horacio Galanti became the first Argentinian to ever summit Mount Everest from both the north and south face (Photo: City of Grande Prairie)

By Shaun Penner

Mount Everest

City Manager sets milestone summiting Everest from north face

Jun 17, 2019 | 5:30 AM

Grande Prairie’s City Manager is celebrating a milestone achievement.

Horacio Galanti has recently become the first ever Argentinian born person to summit Mount Everest from both the south and north faces. He also becomes just the third Canadian to achieve the feat.

The honour is something Galanti refers to as “statistical” in nature but is still very proud of that accomplishment.

“It’s a very small group, so it’s a great honour. I’m very proud to do that, here in Canada as well.”

Galanti’s original ascent up Everest was back in 2013, when he reached the summit from the south face, which is in Nepal. That climb was originally enough for him, as he had no plans to climb the north face, but an old friend from his original journey planted the seed in his ear.

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“My Sherpa from 2013… he started mentioning, you know, the possibility to climb together again, but from the other side,” said Galanti. “Initially I said ‘No, I just climbed Everest.’ But then I started looking a little bit more and said ‘You know what? Why not?’”

Galanti and his Sherpa after summiting the north face of Everest (Photo: Facebook / Everest Tibet)

With that, Galanti set out on a two-month long journey up the much more treacherous conditions of Everest’s north face. The climbing conditions are so difficult on the Tibetan side of the world’s tallest peak that the Chinese government is far stricter on who can climb it. With that, Galanti had to provide a resumé of his climbing experience, as well as provide a certificate from the Nepalese government stated he had climbed the south face.

This is mainly because of the brutal weather conditions that side of the mountain faces, as well as the tough physical traits that side poses, says Galanti.

“There is more exposed rock, mostly on the summit day, and there are several areas where you’re really exposed with about 10,000-foot drops”

Photo: Facebook / Everest Tibet

The other major challenge climbers face when summitting a peak such as Everest (which is 8,850 metres tall) is the lack of oxygen they face as they get higher in elevation. What climbers must do is then climb to set up base camps at certain elevations, packing food and equipment up with them, then descending back down to the already established base camp to allow their bodies to re-oxygenate. Once their bodies are acclimated to those conditions, they can move up the mountain.

Galanti says he is happy to be back in Grande Prairie, enjoying the much calmer summer weather. Though he has no plans to summit Everest again, he isn’t ruling out returning to that area of the world in the future.

“Maybe in the future (I’ll make) a trip to base camp, on the south side. It’s very beautiful,” said Galanti. “There are many other mountains to explore in Nepal. So, for now, I don’t see going back to the summit.”