Everest Olympic medal pledge set to be honoured

In 1922 a group of explorers made the first serious attempt to climb Mount Everest and, despite their lack of success, their exploits were lauded all over the world - even resulting in Olympic gold medals for them all.

Now, with the London 2012 Olympics fast approaching, British adventurer Kenton Cool has promised to try to fulfil a pledge made 88 years ago to take one of the medals to the summit of Everest.

The 1922 British Everest Expedition team - led by Brig Gen Charles Bruce and Lt Col Edward Strutt - came within 500m of the summit, but failed three times to reach the top.

Despite not reaching their goal, and recording the first fatalities trying to climb the mountain, the expedition was a popular sensation.

The public could not get enough of the men who had come within striking distance of the summit.

That attention climaxed at the 1924 Winter Olympics in France when 13 members of the team - 12 British and one Australian - were honoured with medals for mountaineering. It was the first time such medals had ever been awarded.

At a ceremony in Chamonix, International Olympic Committee chairman Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics, spoke of the team's "absolute heroism on behalf of all of the nations of the world".

In France to collect the medals was the expedition's deputy leader, Lt Col Edward Strutt, a highly decorated officer in the Royal Scots.

As he was handed the medals, Lt Col Strutt pledged to place one on the summit of Everest.

In his memoirs Mr Coubertin recalled the moment: "There was also the moving occasion when, at the foot of Mont Blanc, the medal for mountaineering was awarded to one of the leaders of the famous Mount Everest expedition, a courageous Englishman who, defeated but not discouraged, swore to leave it next time at the top of the highest summit in the Himalayas."

But this was a promise that was never kept.....In the years that followed, other teams tried and failed to reach the top of the world. During World War II Everest was left in peace.

By the time Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the peak in 1953 the Olympic promise was all but forgotten.....Until now

Kenton Cool, who is also an Olympic torchbearer, plans to fulfil the pledge made 88 years ago.

"A friend of mine was doing some research into London 2012 when he came across the story of the pledge," said Cool, who has already climbed Everest nine times.

"When he told me about it I said straightaway: 'I have to do that'. And with the 2012 Olympics in London, I knew when I had to do it."

"Then it was a question of finding someone with a medal who would let me take such a precious family heirloom to the top."

Mr Cool is now preparing to leave for Nepal and, after a few weeks' acclimatisation, hopes to make a bid for the summit, with Dr Wakefield's medal in a special case, early in May.

If he makes it he'll not only have climbed Everest 10 times, breaking his own UK record, but he will have kept a very special promise.