Son to search for father's body on Annapurna
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Late Korean mountaineer Park Young-seok / Korea Times File
By Lee Jin-a
A son of Park Young-seok, the famous Korean mountaineer who disappeared in 2011, is set to climb Annapurna to try to find his father, a Korean news outlet reports.
Park and two partners went missing while trying to develop a new climbing route called the “Korea Route” on the South Face of Annapurna, Nepal, in 2011. They went missing while ascending the snow-bound mountain.
After five years, Park’s son has decided to climb the 8,000-meter mountain to look for the bodies, according to SBS News on Saturday.
“I would like to hold a memorial service for dad,” said Park Seong-min, 22. “But I will not feel disappointed even if I fail to find him, because he liked Annapurna.”
Seong-min said that when he was young he often climbed in the Himalayas with his father, but he could never tackle the high regions because of acrophobia.
To overcome his fear of heights, Seong-min trained with the search party, climbing Mount Halla on Jeju Island and taking part in a cross-country trip.
The searchers, including Park, will try until the end of this month to find the missing mountaineer and his partners, Shin Dong-min and Kang Ki-seok.
“I do have fears, but I am not worried,” said the missing mountaineer’s wife, Hong Kyoung-hee. “Even though my husband did not come back from his last trip, I always believed he would return safely when I sent him to the mountains.”
Park Young-seok was the world’s first mountaineer to complete the “Explorers’ Grand Slam,” which consists of climbing the Seven Summits _ the highest mountain on each continent _ as well as reaching the North and South Poles.
He is widely quoted as saying, “Mountaineers should be on the mountains. I will continue my expeditions until death comes."