Updating a story we’ve been chronicling since the spring, about longtime East Cobb resident Brian O’Malley’s attempt to scale Mt. Everest:
He and his team of expert “sherpas” made the climb in late April, after he made an initial trip with his brother-in-law in February.
O’Malley tied his quest to fundraising for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which provides mortgage-free homes for the families of fallen first responders, Gold Star families, and catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. (If you’d like to donate, you can do so by clicking here.)
After arriving in Nepal on April 15, O’Malley needed some medication, but it came with a very bad side effect—he lost his appetite and wasn’t eating much at all as the journey got underway
As the trek continued, O’Malley lost 20 pounds and “considerable strength.” Eventually he had to be rescued by one of his sherpas and hospitalized in Kathmandu before returning to the United States.
Speaking in mid-May, as he was still recovering at his daughter’s home in Norfolk, Va., O’Malley’s voice was cracking a bit as reflected on what he called “the experience of a lifetime.”
His quest to become the third-oldest man to scale the tallest point in the world came up short, but he said that the lessons he drew from the expedition were deeply profound.
“I’m glad I did it and I had the opportunity to do it,” O’Malley told East Cobb News.
He said he was grateful to be able to keep his promise to his family to survive—although he and his crew passed a sobering graveyard of Everest’s climbing victims along the way.
“If I had continued one more day, I may not be talking to you. I had no problem with the altitude. I just could not eat without feeling very nauseous.”
As O’Malley was walking to his rescue helicopter, he fell through an icy crevice on an unmarked trail and had to be pulled out by two of his sherpas.
Looking up from 22,000 feet, he could see Mt. Everest (elevation 29,031 feet), but knew that’s as far as he would get.
“The summit was right there, and I wanted to feel like I could get through it.”
As O’Malley admitted in the video below, however, when he was taken away, “it didn’t feel heroic, it felt hollow. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is to stop—not because you’re weak, but because you know your limits.
“Anyone can be a sherpa to anybody at any time, to help people out, and at the same time to not be afraid to ask for help.”
O’Malley, who with his wife Shelley raised three children who graduated from Lassiter High School, said he wouldn’t say “never” to contemplating Everest again.
But he wants to spread the insights he gained from that experience to others, in speaking engagements and otherwise, “to help people go for their dreams and not let fear drive them.
“God gives us multiple lives and one death. It’s up to us in the days of our lives to spend them wisely.”
Again, if you want to support what was called the “Boomer Veterans and First Responders Mt Everest Summit Expedition 2025” and its continuing fundraising efforts for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, you can donate here.
O’Malley tells more of his story in an excellent video below; please click the middle button to view the photo slideshow before that.
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