{"id":456291,"date":"2026-05-19T08:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/456291\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T08:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:14:10","slug":"black-heartbroken-as-injury-ends-second-everest-summit-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/456291\/","title":{"rendered":"Black heartbroken as injury ends second Everest summit bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Letterkenny mountaineer Jason Black has been forced to pull out of his second Everest summit bid after suffering a severe ankle injury.<\/p>\n

Black, the only Donegal man to ever summit Everest before, has been leading a\u00a0four-man Irish team on a historic bid for the top of the world.<\/p>\n

Despite the bitter personal setback, Black is continuing to lead Team Ireland from base camp as the rest of the group pushes on towards the summit.<\/p>\n

In an emotional update from the mountain, he revealed that the injury made it unsafe for him to continue into the death zone.<\/p>\n

“I have picked up a pretty severe ankle injury, enough of an injury not to allow me to continue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have it when I\u2019m walking in my normal boots, but the minute I put the crampons on, it changes the angle of my ankle and, for whatever reason, whatever ligament problem I\u2019ve picked up, it\u2019s not allowing me to continue safely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black also had a second serious complication when his own Sherpa became ill on the climb to high camp.<\/p>\n

He said the decision to retreat was heartbreaking, but the correct one to make in the name of health and safety in such a high-stakes environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to put the team first. That is priority,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So I have retreated back to base camp. I am heartbroken. I have put my life, my heart and my soul into this team, this team\u2019s preparation, and everything involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, for the sake of the team and for everybody involved, it is the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

He revealed that his ankle rolled twice in his crampons on the descent, which confirmed his decision was “the right call” given the risks of the route ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot go into the death zone with any margin of error like that,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have got my family and my beautiful wife and my four kids to go back to as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Team Ireland 2026: P\u00e1draig O\u2019Hora, Jason Black, Adam Sweeney and Eanna McGowan<\/p>\n

On 1st April, Black returned to Nepal to lead an all-Irish expedition on Mount Everest alongside former Mayo footballer P\u00e1draig O\u2019Hora, \u00c9anna McGowan from Dublin and 22-year-old Adam Sweeney from Waterford, who is aiming to become the youngest Irish person to summit the mountain.<\/p>\n

The mission has carried huge significance for Black, who was chasing his second summit of Everest. In 2018, he also became the third Irish person to summit K2.<\/p>\n

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Setbacks go hand in hand with professional climbing. After his 2013 summit, Black returned to Everest twice without success.<\/p>\n

Before this latest blow, Black had been focusing on keeping spirits up as his team and climbers from all over the globe endured delays on the mountain due to dangerous ice conditions slowing the opening of the route.<\/p>\n

Black said while his own summit bid is over, he is boosted by the fact that Team Ireland\u2019s goal is within reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe highs are that the team are on their way to Camp 4. They\u2019re tired, but they are motivated and pushing in the right direction.<\/p>\n

“Tonight, please God, they will be into Camp 4 and then through the Yellow Band, entering the death zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black said his role has now shifted to guiding the team from below, helping manage communications and weather support as they go for the summit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel tonight is the night, the 19th, tomorrow morning is the exact move, and they will be pushing for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Irish team is being supported by a one-to-one Sherpa team and is now climbing on oxygen.<\/p>\n

Black remains focused on seeing them through to the 8,848m summit.<\/p>\n

\u201cP\u00e1draig O\u2019Hora is going very well, highly motivated as well. Adam, please God, will be the youngest Irish successful summiteer on Mount Everest, and again he is highly motivated and going very well as well. \u00c9anna McGowan is going great at the minute,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease God they can fly that Tricolour from the summit proudly, and I know what that feeling feels like. So it\u2019s all about them and it\u2019s all about Team Ireland at the minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cSo please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. It is going to be a battle of will and determination and might, but it\u2019s their dream, their aspiration, their goal, and they\u2019ve got to chase that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only four Irish climbers have ever stood on top of Everest more than once, Noel Hanna, Robert Smith, Pat Falvey and Lynne Hanna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Letterkenny mountaineer Jason Black has been forced to pull out of his second Everest summit bid after suffering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-456291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}