Utah woman oldest to climb seven continents’ highest peaks

The amazing Carol Masheter, at age 65, says she is now the oldest woman to have reached the top of the tallest mountains in all seven continents, a feat completed in four years: Denali, Aconcagua, Elbrus, Kilimanjaro, Vinson Massif, Everest and Kosciuszko. It’s likely she will keep the record, because those who issue permits for Everest in Tibet have since decided no one over 60 can attempt the climb.

Masheter, who arrived home in Salt Lake City from Australia Wednesday morning, said that attitude makes no sense when held up to death-rate statistics for big mountain climbs. Older people have better survival rates, she said, likely because they have better endurance and judgment. "Each climber needs to be evaluated on their own merits," she said.

Masheter’s merits can be traced to her childhood in Orange County, Calif., where her parents loaded chores onto her and her siblings and didn’t pay them any allowance, but did pay them for chores her mother and father normally took on. Her parents required the kids to tithe to their church.

Masheter says she has saved 10 percent of her income for herself since age 8; by the time she was a freshman in high school, she was considered so responsible and organized that her neighbors would have her take care of their homes while they were away.

So you could say Masheter was in training all her life. But it wasn’t until she was 50, when life dealt her multiple blows — over a period of about 18 months, her sister became ill, Masheter lost her job as a university professor, her mother died and the man she loved left for someone else — that she started climbing.

That was in 1997, in South America. "I was discovering my talents rather late in life," she said. And they weren’t knitting or playing bridge. "Mountaineering," Masheter said moments after getting off her plane and hugging a gaggle of welcoming Wasatch Mountain Club friends at the airport, "saved my life.

Rush Limburgh Deserves A Caning

Position, power or audience is no excuse for despicable behavior, under any circumstances. I. of course, refer to conservative pundit, Rush Limbaugh's ignorant rant in calling a young lady a slut on national television. Rush knew exactly what he was doing and showed himself to be the bigoted idito that he is know, now proven to be. I am not a liberal, but a voting conservative, who can separate the issue from the person. Not so Limbaugh. Whose treatment derogatory comments about a law student who testified about birth control policy defies any kind of acceptable norm. Just because someone has the right to do something, doesn't mean they should do it. That, is called, responsibility.

A flower company is the seventh advertiser to pull its ads from conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh's radio program in reaction to his derogatory comments about a law student who testified about birth control policy.  ProFlowers said Sunday on its Facebook page that it has suspended advertising on Limbaugh's program because his comments about Georgetown University student Sandra Fluke "went beyond political discourse to a personal attack and do not reflect our values as a company."  The six other advertisers that say they have pulled ads from his show are mortgage lender Quicken Loans, mattress retailers Sleep Train and Sleep Number, software maker Citrix Systems Inc., online data backup service provider Carbonite and online legal document services company LegalZoom.

Limbaugh apologized to Fluke on Saturday after calling her a "slut" and "prostitute" resulting in him being criticized by Republican and Democratic politicians and prompted several advertisers left the show.His "apology" does not appear to be motivated by a realization of being totally wrong, but by advertisers rushing to drop him, in other words, when it hit him in the pocketbook. I hope people continue to send the strong message that this kind of behavior, by anyone, regardless of their politics, is simply offensive and repugnant.