Woman with MS preps to climb Mt. Everest

From the intro to an AP feature about Wendy Booker:

BEND, Ore. — Wendy Booker's left side is numb from her toes to the top of her rib cage. Yet somehow, she has managed to climb the tallest peaks on six continents. For Booker to complete the climbing feat known as the Seven Summits, just one peak remains: Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth.

Living with multiple sclerosis, Booker says, is much like climbing a mountain.

"I wanted to show what life with MS is like," she says. "It's a struggle. You can't always get to the top."

Booker, 54, (pictured) will strive to become the first person with multiple sclerosis to climb the highest mountain on each of the world's seven continents when she attempts Everest this spring.

At 29,035 feet, Mount Everest towers above the Himalayas on the border of the south Asian countries of Nepal and Tibet.

A single mother of three who splits her time between Boston and Boulder, Colo., Booker will have plenty of help from Central Oregon climbers.

Booker, who has received international media attention on her quest, plans to climb Everest with Brooke Barnes of Mountain Link guide service in Bend. The two have trained at Mount Bachelor, practicing ladder crossings while wearing crampons, in preparation for the dangerous Khumbu Icefall on Everest.

Barnes and Booker have reached together the top of three of the Seven Summits: Mount Vinson Massif in Antarctica, Aconcagua in Argentina, and Mount Kosciuszko in Australia.

Booker says she will not climb without Barnes.