Mountaineer bids to become oldest Irish person to summit highest peaks on seven continents

But when you achieve something like that it gives you enormous satisfaction to continue to push the barriers.

On Sunday, Mr Mahon will leave for Antarctica to set the record to become the 15th Irish person — and the oldest Irish person ever — to summit the seven highest peaks on the world’s seven continents.

In 2012, he summited 5,642m Mount Elbrus; in 2014 he climbed the 8,848m Mount Everest; in 2017 it was Kilimanjaro at 5,895m; followed by Aconcagua at 6,961m in 2019.

He climbed Denali at 6,192m in 2022 and Mount Kosciuszko at 2,228m this year. Next month, he will climb Mount Vinson at 4,892m.

Mountaineering has taken him through remote villages in Tibet and along the Russia-Georgia border at times of tension, looking down on Georgian military patrols from the mountains.

He will turn 63 when he climbs Mount Vision Massif and he will become one of fewer than 500 people internationally to complete the seven-summit challenge.

Although it is approaching summer in Antarctica, Mr Mahon expects temperatures of -20c to -30c in the continent’s “balmy” summer, with temperatures potentially dropping as low as -50c with wind-chill.

“Everything is about survival. You’re fighting the cold all the time,” he said.

Showers of tiny ice crystals can explode in unwelcome bursts inside the tent whenever the tent walls are even slightly disturbed as condensation quickly turns to ice and coats the inside of the high-performance tents.

“Only about 100 people go to Antarctica every year, and most of them are scientists,” Mr Mahon said.

“No animals live there, there are no birds inland. There is no sound apart from the occasional little avalanche or rock slide.

There’s no noise pollution whatsoever. There’s 24-hour light; 2am is the same as 2pm. It’s just so peaceful. It’s what you would anticipate heaven would be like.

Previously, he spent eight weeks travelling to and climbing Everest, aged 52.

He reached the summit at 6.30am with near-perfect visibility.

“I just stood on the summit and I tried to stay in the moment and realise at that particular point I was the highest human being standing on the highest mountain in the world. And being conscious of looking around and looking at the Himalayas and just trying to take it in. It was just so, so special.”

A talk by respected mountaineer the late Noel Hanna, who summited Everest 10 times but died last year aged 56 after summiting Annapurna in Nepal, inspired him to begin mountaineering.

“He said, ‘mountaineering is 80% mental and 20% physical’.

“I’ve held that phrase in all of my journeys through all of the mountains.”

Age should not be a barrier to people pushing themselves and pursuing their dreams, he said.

‘There are no limits with a positive mental attitude and proper preparation,’ says Derek Mahon.

“The youngest person to summit Mount Everest was 13 years old; the oldest was an 80-year-old. So I don’t think there is an age limit.

“If you think you can do it, nothing should stand in your way of succeeding.

“There are no limits with a positive mental attitude and proper preparation.

“There’s really nothing to stop us but ourselves.

“Age to me is not the barrier. I have conditioned myself for this climb to an ultra-fit level.

“I’m nearly 63 and I’m running 5ks in just under 21 minutes.

“If we can sometimes only get out of our own way we would succeed so much more.”

Mr Mahon, a father-of-three from Naul, Co Meath, leaves on Sunday to complete the last of his climbs of the seven summits.