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Gary Guller becomes first person with one arm to climb to the top world's highest mountain.

Gary Guller becomes first person with one arm to climb to the top world's highest mountain. By Pam LeBlanc, Austin American Statesmam

Hours after completing his quest to become the first person with one arm to scale the world's tallest mountain, Austin climber Gary Guller sipped tomato soup and drank tea at a camp high on Mount Everest.

Guller, 36, and four Sherpas reached the 29,035-foot peak just after noon Nepali time Friday, or about 1 a.m. Friday Texas time. It took them 17 hours to climb to the summit from Camp Four, at 26,000 feet, through what is known as the "death zone" because of its thin air and treacherous conditions. All were healthy, happy and well afterward, according to a dispatch from base camp at the foot of Everest.

Guller's accomplishment comes just days before the 50th anniversary of the first time the summit was reached, on May 29, 1953, by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Guller will stay in Nepal to attend a convention of Everest summitteers on that day — which is also his wedding anniversary.

Guller, who lost his left arm after a mountaineering accident 17 years ago in Mexico, tried to climb Everest two years ago but had to turn back because of bad weather and avalanches. He is the third climber with a serious disability to scale the peak. Tom Whittaker, a below-the-leg amputee, made it in 1998; Eric Weihenmayer, who is blind, reached the summit in 2001.

The Sherpas on Guller's summit team were Nima Dawa, Namgya, Pemba Tenzing and Da Nima.

The base camp manager for the expedition and a teacher at the Texas State School for the Deaf in Austin, said pandemonium broke out when she and others at the foot of Everest received word by walkie-talkie that the team had reached the highest point in the world.

"As our cheers resonated through base camp, the other expeditions from all the surrounding camps cheered right along with us, showing their admiration for our accomplishment," she wrote in an e-mail dispatch. "As I looked out over camp, hundreds of thumbs up and hands were waving to me."

Guller's summit effort was part of Team Everest '03, organized by the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities to shatter the misconception that people with disabilities are not strong and capable. In March, a group made up mostly of Texans, many of them with disabilities — including five who use wheelchairs and others who were deaf or missing limbs — trekked 30 miles to base camp of Everest at 17,600 feet. Most of them returned home, and Guller then began his altitude conditioning and other preparations for the summit assault.

Dennis Borel of the Austin-based Coalition of Texans with Disabilities called the trek a historic first. "I think it gives inspiration to anybody who wants to take on challenges that may seem impossible," he said. "People are going to look at this and say, 'I'm going to have to change my opinion on what people with disabilities can do.' "

Gov. Rick Perry commended Guller's determination. "He serves as a reminder to all that society should never place limits on the ability of the human mind or the potential of the human spirit," Perry said.

More than 1,200 climbers have reached the summit since Hillary and Norgay's expedition. At least 175 have died trying. Climbers battle avalanches, falls, altitude sickness, hypothermia and disorientation on their way to the top.

A record number of climbers — about 100 — tried to reach the summit this year, but winds of up to 100 mph stymied anyone from reaching the peak until this week. The teams must be off the mountain by the end of May, before monsoon season begins. Bad weather repeatedly delayed Team Everest '03's summit bid.