The funeral of one of Ireland’s most accomplished mountaineers is to be held next Saturday.
Noel Hanna died after successfully summiting the world’s 10th highest peak in Nepal last Monday.
The Co Down native was found dead inside his tent at Camp IV of Annapurna in the Himalayas last Monday night after scaling the 26,545ft mountain without supplemental oxygen, officials said.
Read more: NI climber Noel Hanna reported to have died climbing Mount Annapurna
The 56-year-old began scaling the mountain a week previously. His was the first successful Irish ascent of the mountain.
Mingma Sherpa, chairman at Seven Summit Treks, whom Mr Hanna climbed with reported he “breathed his last in Camp IV last night (last Monday)”.
His body was successfully recovered from the mountain range last Tuesday and flown back to Nepalese capital of Kathmandu where his remains have been repatriated from.
A cremation service will take place at Roselawn cemetery and crematorium Belfast at 2pm. Family and close friends only are asked to attend as numbers are restricted.
A gathering and celebration of his life will follow the service and will take place at the Stormont Hotel in Belfast at 3.30pm with everyone welcome.
Mr Hanna’s wife Lynne explained how her husband “returned to the tent, (in Camp IV) took some hot soup and fell asleep, never to awaken again, no drama, no big story.
"It was his time to go and he died in the Himalayas, what better place for my Mountain Man. Sleep well Noel.”
A renowned adventurer, he scaled summits and competed in sports adventures worldwide. He climbed Mt Everest 10 times.
Along with his wife, they both successfully summited Mount Everest in 2009 and 2016 from both sides, the first couple to do so.
Mr Hanna scaled the highest peak on every continent and led the first Irish ascent of K2 the world’s second highest mountain amongst others. He also helped others to scale some of the world’s most difficult mountains.
He was on Mt Everest when Kildare based businessman John Delaney died in 2011 and almost four years ago.
Mr Hanna accompanied Séamus Shay Lawless (39) from Bray, Co Wicklow, who died just hours after summiting Everest.
Mr Lawless, a professor of artificial intelligence at Trinity College Dublin, fell up to 500m during his descent, in an area known as the balcony.
Mr Lawless did the climb to raise up to €25,000 for the Barretstown Children’s Charity. More than €200,000 was raised to fund an effort to locate Mr Lawless, Mr Hanna took part in the search and rescue mission but the search was eventually called off.
Mr Hanna, a former bodyguard, worked on one of the visits of US President Bill Clinton to Ireland.
Mountaineering Ireland presented him with the prestigious Lynam Award named after the late successful Dublin climber Joss Lynam.
Mr Hanna became his climbing career as a young boy when he first scaled the Mourne Mountains in Co Down close to the village of Dromara where he lived.
Mountaineering Ireland said in a statement: “On behalf of the Board and members of Mountaineering Ireland, Chairperson David Pollard expressed condolences to Noel’s wife, Lynne, who summited Everest, Manaslu and many other peaks with Noel.
“In 2021 Noel Hanna was the recipient of Mountaineering Ireland’s Lynam Medal in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments in mountaineering.
“Noel’s positivity, enthusiasm and can-do attitude were infectious and his loss will be felt across the mountaineering community. May he rest in peace”.
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