North Texan Returns After Successful Climb To Top Of Mount Everest
DALLAS, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Crystal Lovell just returned from climbing to the top of Mount Everest. "You feel like you're unstoppable, you feel you can do anything."
At more than 29,000 feet, it is the world's highest peak. "You feel so small. You're surrounded by these mountains that are just beautiful and they take your breath away."
So do the low levels of oxygen on Everest.
Lovell's success comes as eleven people have died this season trying to reach the top.
She blames inexperienced climbers who travel with guides at a deep discount. "So when you hear people dying of altitude sickness or exhaustion most times because they don't have enough oxygen with them. My company brings 100 bottles of oxygen up the mountain and we have more than enough."
Lovell says going with the right company to climb Everest cost her $70,000.
Guides helped her scale the treacherous ice-fall along the southern side in Nepal, which is a gateway to the top that features a maze of ice blocks constantly shifting. "The first time I went through the icefall, it was the most terrifying thing I've ever done before."
Lovell said what made it an even scarier experience was her team's encounter with inexperienced climbers. "They were falling over, they were passing out, they were on the ground. They didn't know how to clip on and off and that was a little nerve-wrecking."
One thing she says helped her get acclimated to the low levels of oxygen on Mt. Everest was an altitude tent that she set up at home in McKinney.
"You are constantly changing that and pushing the oxygen levels higher and higher and you're just testing your oxygen levels. The goal of that is to get more red cells in your body."
It also proved valuable when she previously climbed to the top of the highest peaks in North and South America. "I did Denali, Aconcagua, and Everest within a year."
Lovell said her passion began after she had become depressed and was stuck in a job in corporate America.
When a friend suggested they visit Yosemite National Park in California, they camped out on a mountain.
She was hooked.
Lovell said she went to a mountaineering school in Washington State, and later climbed Mount Rainier, the highest peak in that state.
With all that she's accomplished, she says she's not done yet.
Her goal is to do the Seven Summits, reach the top peak in each continent. "That's the dream. I would also like to do Mt. Everest without oxygen one day. I think that's the ultimate mountaineer's dream. There's something about finding that limit. I think we all push only to 40%, most people will quit before then, and the mountains make you push past that."
To Crystal Lovell, the sky really is no limit.
***UPDATE ***
After our original story aired May 28th about Crystal Lovell's climb of Mt. Everest, it has come to our attention that there may be inconsistencies in her story and that some key points she told us are, according to documents we have reviewed, inaccurate.
An event team roster obtained by CBS-11, shows Lovell, who was registered for the March 25th trip as Crystal Budny, was not among those listed who climbed to the top or "summited" the mountain. Instead, she's listed as being signed up to go as high as Camp II, which is at about 21,500 feet, not 29,000 feet at the top.
She had told us that she paid $70,000 to get to the top, but the website of the company she climbed with, Alpine Ascents International, listed the cost of a climb to Camp II as $10,000. Her name does not appear on the list of people who reached the summit posted on the company's website.
The company has declined any comment saying it doesn't disclose information about its clients.
We have repeatedly called Lovell, but we have not heard back from her.
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