Property developer Jay Patry, 39, achieved a 20-year dream on Tuesday when he reached the summit of Mount Everest.
Yet Patry, the owner of Patry Inc. Developments in Kingston, Ont., wasn’t finished. Less than 24 hours later, he reached the summit of a nearby Himalayan peak, Mount Lhotse, the fourth tallest mountain in the world.
According to Patry, he is the first Canadian ever to climb both mountains within a 24-hour stretch, a feat that has only been done about 30 times in recorded history.
Patry is known for his lofty goals.
He has built a long list of housing projects in Kingston, his most controversial being the proposed high-rise along the city’s waterfront, meant to be the highest building along Kingston’s scenic water’s edge.
When CKWS reached Patry on Friday in Kathmandu, Nepal, he called the view from the top “the most amazing view in the world,” and he said it “made years of hard work worthwhile.”
Climbing Everest had been an ambition of his since he was a teenager, he said.
“When I came to Nepal when I was 19, I went to Everest base camp. I looked at the mountain and thought it was something I wanted to do.”
It took him two months to trek into the Himalayas and get used to the thin air, preparation needed to climb the iconic 29,000-foot summit of Mount Everest.
The Kingston developer said he got to stand on top of the world for about an hour.
“There was really no one else on the summit except for me and a couple of other people.”
But Patry wasn’t finished yet. Within 24 hours, he reached the summit of Mount Lhotse.
Patry says he now wants to join the Seven Summit Club, a title given only to those who have scaled the highest mountains of each of the seven continents.
But his immediate goal is to return home to his family and get back to business.
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