Climbing (most) every mountain

At 72, Fred Leverentz of Minnetonka doesn't mind if you call him an "old dude climbing mountains." In the past 12 years, he's put more than 20 mountains behind him, including a dozen of Colorado's "fourteeners" -- mountaineering lingo for 14,000-foot peaks. This spring, he set off to climb to the Advanced Base Camp on the Tibetan side of Mount Everest, at just over 21,400 feet. Only six in his group of nine made it to their final destination -- two were waylaid by altitude sickness, the other (a dentist, no less) by infected wisdom teeth. As Leverentz notes, "I was 43 years older than the youngest one, and she wasn't even all that young."

The retired owner of a contracting business has always been active; he and his wife, Sharon Grimes, were marathon runners and remain avid hikers. But their 1999 trip to the Grand Canyon ignited a new kind of adventure-seeking in him. He hasn't even let two episodes of cancer since 2001 get in his way.

Q What got you started mountain climbing 12 years ago?

A When we did [a climb down] the Grand Canyon, we looked at each other and said, 'Gee, this is kind of fun. Let's keep doing this.' And that kind of got us started again. The year after we did the Grand Canyon, we went down to Peru and hiked the Inca Trail, which was 25 or 30 miles through the mountains. ... The more of that we did, the better I liked it.

Q What was your first big-name mountain?

A In 2002 I did Mt. Kilimanjaro and that was a little bit over 19,000 feet. When we got to the top, there were four of us, we were all feeling so good that we knew we could do something higher but we just kind of ran out of real estate. From that time on, I wanted to be able to say I went over 20,000 feet.

Q But Everest wasn't at the top of your mind?

Q Tell us about your climb south of Everest in Nepal in 2010.

A Four or five days in, I fell. I'd like to tell you how romantic all this was, but actually I was standing still at the time and kind of lost my balance and tipped over [laughs]. And I landed on my camera in the general vicinity of my left kidney and ended up breaking some ribs. So I got helicoptered out and that opportunity to climb went away. But by this time, I knew Nepal might be the place to go because the mountains were there and they were all that high.

Q Does your wife worry about you when you head off on these adventures?

A I like to say that she just sits at home and frets. ... As a matter of fact, when I came home with broken ribs last fall, her first question to me was, "When are you going back?" That could mean more than one thing, you understand [laughs]. No, she's very supportive.

Q You made it to Advanced Base Camp on Everest this spring. Where is ABC?

Q What was ABC like?

A Living is not easy there, so you don't want to hang around there very long. The people who are going higher [on Everest] go to ABC and they kind of wait for conditions, but after a few days if the conditions don't improve or are not right to continue, they actually go back down. They don't stay there.

Q Did you have to use oxygen?

A No, I didn't. Normally you don't unless you come down with something. There is oxygen there because things happen to people. But what they call the death zone starts above 25,000 feet, and the interesting thing about being as high as I was, there was still 8,000 feet of mountain above me. Oxygen is used by everyone who goes much higher, but not where we were. It would have been nice, though [laughs].

Q Do you want to go back to Everest?

Q What do you to do to stay in shape for climbs?

A I walk every day.

Q What's next for you?

A I will continue doing [14,000-foot mountains]. ... I think maybe the 20,000-foot days are pretty much over. But I have a lot of friends who are mountain climbers and there's always someone to go somewhere with.

Q Are the friendships the best part of your adventures?

Q What advice do you have for anyone who wants to start climbing later in life?

A I've never let my age stand in the way of anything. And I think it's kept me younger. I don't think so, I know so. ... You are as young as you want to be, and you get out there and do it and enjoy it and it just makes your life so much better. ... And if they want to go with me, they're welcome to.

Fred Leverentz can be reached by e-mail at fredleverentz@hotmail.com.