Afghanistan Amputee Veteran Reaches Top of Everest With A Little Help From Hells Angel

Wounded veteran Charlie Linville summits Mount Everest
CBS News
May 19, 2016

A 30-year-old Idaho native has become the first combat wounded veteran to climb Mount Everest.

The Heroes Project, a group that helps wounded veterans, announced Thursday that retired U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Charlie Linville had reached the 29,029-foot summit.

"I was looking for something to completely change myself... and really get rid of the demons that were created from war," Linville told CBS News in April as he headed to Tibet for his latest climb.

"The team is healthy and safe and currently descending the mountain," the group said in a statement announcing the feat.

Linville had already reached the summit of some of the highest peaks in the world on one leg. He was defusing bombs in Afghanistan in 2011 when he was injured as an explosive device detonated, leading to the amputation of his right leg below the knee.

"Can't get any taller than Everest, you know?" Linville said, laughing. "There is nothing else."

The Heroes Project was started by former Hells Angel biker Tim Medvetz, who summited Everest in 2007, six years after suffering life-threatening injuries in a motorcycle crash. The experience inspired him to create the nonprofit organization that helps catastrophically injured war veterans climb the world's tallest mountains.
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