Left for dead on the summit of Mount Everest with people stepping over his body and even reporting his death on the internet for his family to read inspired Ted Atkins to create a brand new oxygen (O2) mask and regulator system, which is now the go-to system for climbing at high altitude – and he has just returned from setting up what could be the highest O2 factory in the world.
Having been involved in high altitude mountaineering since 1983, in 1988 Atkins became involved in the O2 systems as a member of the Joint Services Team on Everest’s West Flank route. It was here he realised that the available systems were “not only wasteful, but dangerously inadequate”.
Serving 33-years in the Royal Air Force (RAF), leaving as an Aerosystems Engineering Officer, in 2001 he led the first RAF team to climb Everest, but he did not summit with the team because one of the team members got sick on the summit push. He lost the summit making the rescue.
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