A dad-of-three from Oldham is thought to be the first British Muslim to scale Mount Everest - and completed part of the momentous challenge whilst fasting for Ramadan.
Akke Rahman, 39, who lives in Chadderton with his wife and three children, summited the world's highest mountain on May 13 in an incredible 21 days and says he's still struggling to process his achievement. The former insurance manager even fell down a crevasse early in his trip and missed celebrating Eid with his family for the first time in his life, in order to complete the climb at the best possible time.
Speaking to the M.E.N after arriving home, Akke said he was looking forward to spending some time with his family, and is having to look at photographs from the once in a lifetime trip to believe it happened.
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"My family were so relieved to see me. My little boy was crying. I just wanted to get home to them by the end," he said. "I don't think it has sunk in yet. I need to be home for a few days before I start processing it."
The dad-of-three only began mountaineering a few years ago, and was inspired to get into the extreme support to 'do something different' and to inspire his children aged 15, 10, and six.
He started with popular mountains in the UK such as Snowdown, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis, before moving on to Europe's tallest mountain - Elbrus in Russia, which he scaled five days after recovering from Covid-19. He then completed Mount Blanc and Kilimanjaro in the space of a week.
"The plan was always to do Everest but you need to put yourself on a journey and see how your body reacts," he said. "Rich people can just pay for an expedition and if they do it great and if they don’t it doesn’t really matter."
After gaining attention for his climbs, Akke was sponsored by a TV channel for his Everest climb. He arrived at base camp on April 24, after pushing back his trip so that he could spend a few days with his family during Ramadan.
"When I was doing my summit push Ramadan had finished but on the way to base camp I was fasting," he said. "A few days I had to miss it because it was quite intense. It was more important to look after my health on those days than risk fasting.
"I didn’t realise how much I was going to miss my family. It was the first time I’d been away from them during Eid. The mental side was way harder than the physical side of it."
Achieving the summit was an incredible moment for Akke, but he didn't get much time to soak it in. He said: "We only spent about 25 minutes at the summit. I took a few photos but my Sherpa was as hard as nails and said we didn’t have much time. He said take your pictures and let’s get back down."
While returning to base camp, Akke said he slipped and fell into a crevasse and was left hanging by a safety line. He said he was left hanging for 45 minutes until his Sherpa was able to come to his rescue.
"When we got back to base camp I felt relieved because I know a lot of accidents happen on the way down," he added. "Every second I was just thinking about my family and my kids. I was doing this for them, not me.
"On my way down I saw a dead body. The man’s clothing had turned a funny colour because of the altitude. I didn’t ask my Sherpa any questions and waited until we got down to safety because it was a bleak reminder of what could happen."
Akke, who left his job working for an insurance company to make mountaineering a full-time career raised more than £80,000 for Orphans Shelter Foundation for his Everest climb. He hopes to continue climbing mountains in the future, but for now, it's all about being with his family.
"I think there will be other mountains and I would like to think that in the future I will do another one but right now at this point I want to spend time with my family because I’ve been away from them for nearly six weeks," he said.
To find out more about Mr Rahman’s fundraising, click here.
