I never had the pleasure of meeting this person,I watched the summit documentary on youtube.and was touched the man portrayed ger McDonnell! And the courage and humanity he showed! He gave his amazing life for the aid of others in peril! Congratulations on reaching the summit GER MCDONNELL XX REST IN PEACE XX

Just watched the film Summit. I was totally moved by the selflessness of Ger and Pemba. And the self gratifying attitude of some of the people there. In a world with so much selfishness and so little faith, it is people like Ger and Pemba who truly make a difference to the world. In a world with so little hope, their memories and actions light the way for a better day.

I first met Gerard at The Motorcycle Shop in Anchorage He came in with his KTM Motorcycle, I instantly liked him as did everyone that met him I think. He had a presence about him ,he was quick with a smile and a greeting and you could tell right away it was genuine. He was the kind of guy that when he walked into a room people would gravitate towards him. I rode Motorcycles with him a few times and ran into him a couple of times in the mountains hiking and once in a while around Anchorage. Mostly I saw him and talked with him when he came into the motorcycle shop where i worked from1995 to 2007 I think it was around 2002 when i first met him there. . My wife and I moved from Alaska in 2007 just before we left we went to the new Irish bar in anch. Gerard and Annie came in I said hello and Gerard briefly introduced my wife and I to Annie. That was St. Patricks day 2007. I doubt Annie would remember the meeting was brief he told me he was picked for the K2 expedition that night . My wife and I moved 4000 miles away the following month. Fast forward to last week 05/25/2013. A friend placed a link to the book one mountain a thousand peaks . My wife and I was floored. this is very late five years late my deepest sympathy and condolences to Annie and Gerards Family. Gerard was truely one of the best individuals I have ever met a true salt of the earth kinda guy. I still remember his fantastic smile and friendly manor these five years later as if it were yesterday .so much so that i feel compelled to leave this comment 5 years late.

Ger was a man who caught fear by the horns..a genuine hero of a man, rest in peace and tranquility fella.

Living abroad I don't read the Irish newspapers that often but when a colleague brought back an Evening Herald, i was reading the story re this Ger McDonnell who died on K2 and bit by bit, it dawned on me that I knew this guy from my DCU days. So I googled the story hoping not to get confirmation of what I thought. Unfortunately I found this site and saw the pictures and the tributes from people like Tom and memories came back to me. One memory I have is of Ger sitting in a shopping trolley whilst it was being pushed down a Hill at the Cork Jazz fest back in 1989. :-) Ger was obviously a hero. I always had a soft spot for him in college and I felt I had to write a tribute from someone who knew him a little from the drunken slipper and DCU bar days. I wish to send my condolences to his family, partner and friends. May he rest in peace Deirdre Ecock - AF91 x

Goodbye my friend. I hope you got the words I whispered to you in the crowds of the Kilcornan community hall. I’m sure I am not alone in trying to understand the pull the mountain had on you. But how can I deny you what you understood and loved - just to be able to see you one more time. Your death opened an old door -even that is wrong , for the door was never closed. Instead I rediscovered it again, and in it I met voices and faces from the past. They too looked like they had captured snowflakes in their hair on some remote landscape. For this I thank you. I also thank you for making me question what was important in life whenever your grinning, goggled face appeared upon yet another conquered pinnacle. I’ll miss the random e-mails with sentences like “F@#$ it!! Jeesuz, I've been wanting to make it to that thing for years.”, “Bloody thing must weigh 5lbs but it's black so my head shouldn't look so fat.” Or “So embrace the nappy changings.” And always the few lines of Irish so I had to go look up a dictionary. I also spoke to my kids of daddy’s friend this weekend. Of the bearded man and his effortless grin. Of his conquests snowy white and softly red. Of his death by glacial ice. I will remind them again and again as time goes on of the doves released outside the parish hall. Marko

Well after the Memorial on Sunday it's hard to find the words to express how much admiration I had for Ger as it was articulated so well by his brother JJ and indeed his climbing partner Clare and also by Pat Falvey. It was great to see so many of the class turn up from far and wide to pay their respects to the family and celebrate the man himself. I must have tried starting to write this about a dozen times but just didn't know where to start. I feel so proud to have known Ger and feel privileged to have been able to call myself a friend of his. Although I was friendly with Ger in first and second year in college it was only when we both failed 2nd year that I really got to know Ger well. It would be fair to say that myself and Ger weren't exactly focused on the academic side of EE and preferred to throw our energies into practically anything else, soccer, rugby, racket ball and of course socialising. In 3rd year Ger worked in Kinsale with Eli-Lilly and I worked with ESB and used any excuse I could find to work in ESB Cork so that I could go on the rip with Ger in Kinsale. Ger was always up for the craic and when you were with him he seemed to always raise your spirits no matter how down you were, he was a tonic. I remember parties in the country manor that he had rented for the summer along with a bunch of other students working in Eli-Lilly. We both shared a love of Trad music and we’d go for pints in one of the many pubs in Kinsale which also had a live trad band there. A favourite song of ours was Peggy Gordon and we’d request it from the singer as soon as we’d land into the pub, on our 3rd or fourth visit to the pub the singer saw us coming into the bar and obviously thought that he’d avoid the harassment of myself and Ger hounding him to play it and so stopped midway through a jig of some kind and blasted straight into Peggy Gordon accompanied by the not so melodic tones of myself and Ger. I’ll ever meet a man like Ger McDonnell again as long as I live, he’s love of life and his vibrancy was palpable, his fairness in the way he treated everyone was an example to everyone, he was sensitive, kind and understanding. I was constantly amazed by Ger's humility, he had no notions about himself and was totally unaware of his own attractiveness in every sense of the word. My wife Eunice who was my girlfriend at the time went into collect myself and Ger’s official graduation photographs. She went to the counter and asked for the photographs for Walsh and McDonnell, the young lady behind the counter came back a short time later with the 2 framed photos but with an obvious look of disappointment on her face, when Eunice asked what was wrong she said “I was really looking forward to this guy coming in to collect his photo, we all think he’s gorgeous” needless to say Eunice didn’t have to clarify that it was Ger and not me that they were hoping to see walk in the door! In general people who are as focused as Ger had to be to become the greatest mountain climber and explorer this country has ever produced, lack other elements to their personality. They can be selfish, self obsessed and ruthless which are common traits in order to focus on their own goals. Ger managed to throw away the typecast and prove that you can be a total gentleman and still achieve what he did. In one of his emails he sent in 2006 he said that he regretted that he couldn’t make the annual Jim Finn stag in November but he was excited about being in the southern hemisphere for the first time, when I first read it I thought that Ger was taking a well earned rest on the beaches of Australia or somewhere equally idyllic. Not so. Ger was on his way further south again, on his way to cross the Antarctic but never once made mention of it and this only months after being air lifted off K2 after his first attempt at the mountain. It was this type of humility that was so unique and so much part of what I loved about Ger, there are many who display false modesty in the hope that they will get further plaudits but with Ger it was 100% genuine. He never wanted or sought notoriety, he was as modest as you can get and full of integrity. When I met Ger in Dublin after conquering Everest I had a pull-out from a National Geographic magazine that another friend of mine gave me to get Ger to sign for his son. The pull out was from a feature done by the National Geographic released by coincidence the same time as Ger climbed Everest. I had it in my pocket with me but I just couldn’t take it out and ask Ger to sign it, not because I felt uncomfortable but because I knew that Ger would die a death being asked to autograph. In fact that night Ger never once mentioned his momentous achievement, he was too busy asking me and the rest of his friends who went to meet him about how we were doing and what was going on in our lives since we last met. Unbelievable. Like so many over the last 2 weeks I have felt a very real sense of loss upon hearing of Ger’s death and thoughts of him and to be frank, tears for him, never seem far away. His death has had a profound impact on me but I was comforted by talking to the rest of the class over the weekend that they too are going through the same roller coaster of emotions. He’s probably looking down on us and saying “you feckin luadramáns, what are yee at” and having a right laugh at us all. But whatever we’re feeling I can’t imagine the intensity of loss that Ger’s nearest and dearest are going through. Anyway life has to move on and we all have to come to terms with the fact that we’ll never see that heart warming and radiant smile and his hearty high laugh, mind you his garlic belches we can probably live without ;-) Ger, you are gone, ach a Chara, you’ll never be forgotten. Sheamuisín

Unlike many of you, Ger and I were rarely close during our years in DCU though I too have some very fond memories of this very good humored and very good looking red head in our class. I was amazed when I heard that he had summitted Everest as the only climbing I can recall Ger doing at DCU was as himself and Mark K would stride over desks to the back of BG03 or a Henry Grattan classroom - naturally always on time for the lecture! Coincidentally, I was just completing Greg Mortenson's biography "Three Cups of Tea" when I heard the devastating news from K2. As I checked the internet for updates and prayed fervently that he would be miraculously saved and turn up in a Balti village as Mortenson had, I could only imagine the anguish his girlfriend and family must have been suffering. My thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones and his many, many close friends - I hope they can get some comfort on their sad loss as they read the countless tributes to our remarkable classmate. Fair play to Ger - he knew what his dreams were and he had the courage to fulfill them. Lisa Ainsworth EE93.

From reading all the tributes to Ger in the last week it's clear that where ever he went and whoever he met, he left a lasting positive impression on them. Thats exactly the impression he made on me too. I knew him to be a very very decent and friendly person. Ger, you are a true hero in the eyes of your old mates back in DCU. Rest in peace. C EE93

Like everyone I've been flooded with memories of Ger since last Saturday. Ger will live in my memory as an individual of the highest quality and it was a priviledge to have known him. My sincere condoloences to his mother, his brother JJ, and his sisters and relatives. He was brilliant crack and always thought of others. He seemed to touch everyone he met with his pure spirit. Ger was a good friend to me and a lot of people and I will miss him. We shared a house in uni last semester in 2nd year when Derry and Rudi went on training Ger and Niall moved in. We shared the house again then in 4th year. I remember we were study partners in 3rd year with 6 weeks left and he helped me to somehow get through the exams and laugh a hell of lot at the same time. Ger was always up to amazing shenanigans and was brilliant fun to be around. He was very highly thought of by everyone in our engineering class and everyone that knew him at college. We managed to keep in contact over the years, particularly the last 7 years or so. He emailed the week before he left for K2 and we were planning to meet up this august. We met up for the Kila gig in Dublin the last three xmas's which was always great crack. I also have a great memory of last summer, a few of us hiked up Brandon and afterwards Ger and I headed for Doolin and Lisdoonvarna for the crack and met a couple more of his friends there for pints. He really loved music and people and crack and he was in his brilliant element with all three. Ger's cousin Mike has also been a friend down through the years. Despite the sadness we could’nt help laughing the other day about the hilarious things that Ger used to get up to. I’m sure everyone has similarly great memories of him. He really was one in a million. Despite the sadness, I feel he did what he wanted to do in his life and I am very happy for him that he summitted K2. His amazing example and pure spirit for life will always live with me and many others I'm sure and I find myself very grateful to have known him. All the best Ger buddy. Mark

I remember for a while Ger staying with his relatives way out in Balbriggan. Following a long night at a dcu house party (over in the "lads" house maybe), knowing he would be in the doghouse if not found at home come morning,he acquired a childs bmx bike - Ger setting off at dawn on the 20 mile trek home, big grin and legs pumping like bejaysus, will always make me smile. Thank you Ger, we were so fortunate to have known you.

* BBC news, clips of K2. * Bonnington talking about K2. http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=upilmq6oMpg * Pictures of K2 in video format http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=tpcP7_2x0Eo * CBS news article http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mzpk2ygjf8 * CNN news article http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=dyy-RtNnY38 * Associated press: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=vUjGfw8jvOg&NR=1 * Photos/clips from Wilcos site http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=zfwPo-Y6puM Some other tributes here: http://sctonline.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/ger-mcdonnell-and-k2-a-perspective/#comment-22

Ger always had a smile on his face and after a chat with Ger, you'd have a smile on yer face. He always had a positive optimistic outlook on life which was refreshing and infectious and I think that's why he was so liked by all his classmates. I shared a house with Ger for a few months in college in 1991. I was big into sports played with my local GAA team, I thought I was fit till I met Ger, he took it to a new level. He put training and diet together before it became fashionable. He also used to get up at 6am and go for an 8 mile run in the phoenix park we lived on the Old Finglas Road! I'd struggle down to the kitchen and there Ger would be tucking into his breakfast not a bother on him, "yeah, just in from me run". Study breaks were spent figuring out how to get fitter, discussing sport over a little bit of ball out the back and I think there were a few volleyball games in the hall when the weather was bad. You had the feeling that anything was possible with Ger and so I wasn't really surprised to see him scale the worlds highest peaks when i was following his adventures from afar. Eventhough his time was cut short tragically he touched many peoples lives and will be remembered with great fondness. I feel that I was lucky to have known him and like so many people he met in his life he made a great impression on me. Niall Lynch EE93

I went to secondary school with ger in askeaton, I remember how he always got on with everyone, how my cousin had a huge crush on him and how nice he was to her, how clever he was and how he didnt mind me copying his homework when i hadnt done my own, he was a lovely fella funny clever and a good friend. I loved saying i knew him when he climbed everest. I,like Tom,can't belive how much it has upset me to hear the news of ger, it just shows some people, even if you dont meet them for years stick in your mind. my prayers are with ger his family friends and annie. I chose my icon because ger was a star sharon(askeaton)

I got to page 9 of the Sunday times last weekend and didnt get any further, my hands started shaking and I dropped the paper. Staring at me out of the page was Ger above the headline "Climber vanishes on pioneer ascent"... OH NO. I didnt even know he was having another go at K2. Ivo Brett emailed me on monday but I didnt reply till late last night. Like all Gers friends and family around the world I was hoping for a miracle and I just wanted to wait for some good news. The news we desperately wanted hasnt come Im afraid. Ive spent the last 3 days on the Internet searching for information. I realised today that I was looking for somewhere to share my grief so good man Niall. I emailed all of you whos address I have last night because you guys and DCU are the thing that links me to Ger. In one sense Im surprised myself how affected I am by this. That time we spent at University is so long ago its like a different lifetime but you have strong memories of your youth and I have nothing but good memories of the 4 years we all spent together in Dublin. Ive remained in contact with some people more then others but Ive always hoovered up any news of the class of EE92 whenever I can. So Ive devoured Mr Martins Superchick trilogy, every november I check the jimfinnstag forum for the banter and Ive especially followed and celebrated Gers previous trips and triumphs from the patfalvey website and others. The last few days Ive been reading comments from people Ive never met about Ger. Theres one here http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/family-mourns-loss-of-irish-k2-climber-13927356.html from a girl who was engaged to his brother and others from people he worked with in Alaska. The links we all make as we go through life reach out far and wide. You dont really change as you get older and I remember the Ger I knew from all these peoples comments Ive read things I never knew about Ger. Like when did he become a mean Bodhran player ??? but see for yourself our man doing his stuff at http://akirishtrad.net/LastNightsFun.html I didnt know about his long term girlfriend a girl called Annie Starkey. It pains me to to read that he phoned her at the moment of greated triumph from the top of K2 only for things to go tragically wrong on the way down. How must she be feeling ? The story Id like to share is during the time Ger, Peter timmonns, Gav and I shared a house in 3rd year. Now as you know Ger, Peter and I werent the worlds best students and collectively I think we spent less time in the library during the entire term then Gav spent in the average month. During 1991 there was one only thing that could get Gav out of the library early and that was Twin peaks on TV. Man he loved that program he would leave the library at precisely 8:42 knowing that it took him exactly 17 minutes to walk home and leave himself one minute to make a hot chocolate and get comfy. Always looking for some entertainment Ger hatched this plan to deny Gav this weekly tv fix and the wheels were set in motion. The first time we physically dragged the TV into the attic and all 3 of us climbed up after it to hide. We might have attempted to make it look like a burglary ? On cue at exactly 8:59 Gavs key went into the lock of the flat and he came up the stairs. Unfortunately after his first "What the fu$k" the laughter coming from the attic gave the game away and a ballistic Gav burst open the attic door and we were all manhandled along with the tv out of the attic by a furious Gav. The following week it was decided to have another go.... There was already some tension in the house over an incident with the contents of Gavs dinner from a pressure cooker ending up on the kitchen ceiling so we knew the second time around that the plan would have to be a good one. We also knew that if there was any hope of us seeing the dawn that wed probably have to maintain physical separation between us and Gav. Now we lived in a first floor maisonette and you had to come up the stairs to get to the flat so this gave Ger an idea. First of all the the TV was switched on and the volume turned right up so you could hear the Twin peaks theme 50 yards from the flat. We then removed the light bulbs from the hall and literally piled just about every bit of furniture in the flat on the stairs to deny access. On cue at exactly 8:59 the key went in the door and Gav walked straight into a sofa leg. As the Twin peaks theme started Gav valiantly made a herioc effort to clear the obstacle but in the dark it was too much. Oh my god he was mad, he eventually gave up and was subsequently recorded doing a sub 4 minute mile to some other destination with a more accessible tv. Cheap entertainment and good memories and eh apologies to any parties concerned regarding any historical inaccuracies, Gav youre a good man ! Some time later in the year it snowed and I deliberate..eh inadvertently put a snowball through Gers bedroom window. Gers bed was directly under the window and over the following few hours quite an amount of snow accumulated on his bed so he went to bed that night basically in a snow drift. Ive often thought of that incident in later years and Ive taken silent credit for giving him his first taste of sleeping in the snow something he did a lot of over the years.. For those who havent found it you can read Gers final thoughts on the K2 trip around the following site http://www.humanedgetech.com/expedition/mcdonnell/index.php?dispid=11&view=33005 Theres quite a lot of Mcdonnell`isms there if you read it you can just imagine him saying "That is until the kitchen lads bang a metal plate with a spoon and we all come running like hungry calves in midwinter" I spent last night rooting through the back of the wardrobe looking for ages for the attached few photos, the picture of Ger on his bike is the one I always remember him by. It was the end of the 3rd year exams and Ger was heading to Busaras to go home. This photo was basically the mould for the rest of his life, rucksack on his back with somewhere to get to, Good man ! Ive heard it that the numbers on the Jim finn stag have waned dangerously in the last few years myself included. Ger always liked a good pissup and my suggestion is that later in the year we all dust off the woolly jumpers and docs and toast his life this coming November over the usual route. Maybe Jim will agree ( or alternatively could be paid off from Seamus` generous expense account ? ) this year to it being renamed temporarily the Ger McDonnell stag anniversary stag ? I talked to Sean Cavanagh this evening and weve decided to book our flights once Ned has confirmed his maternity schedule for this coming November. For non EE persons details will be available ( probably in december ) at http://www.jimfinnstag.com Ger always like a bit of gaeilge didnt he so Sin e anois a chairde. Slan agus beannacht! Tom Mccormack EE92 on irishboyabroad@gmail.com

When you are sorrowful look into your heart and you shall see that you are weeping for that which has been your delight We will miss you

I was a year ahead of Ger in college and knew him, but not as well as the rest of you. A few years later, when I was sharing an office/lab with Ned, the door opened one day and I looked around to see a Grizzly Adams lookalike with a deer's antler under his arm! It took me a minute to recognise him but it was Ger, grinning away at the perplexed look on my face :-) Like I said, I didn't know him as well as the rest of you but I am still proud to have known him and if someone had told me when I first met him 20 years ago that I was looking at a guy who would one day stand on top of Everest and K2, well... I hope you are all doing OK.

I remember being at a party where Ger was performing acrobatic feats from the banisters. Small stuff compared to what he was to achieve in the years to come. There are but a few men such as Ger produced in each generation, so I'm proud to say I knew such a true adventurer, a modern day Tom Crean. Rest in peace Ger, we'll miss you. Paddy Kallewaard - EE93

Ger once described himself to me in college as a "mad limerick feicker" He certainly proved that on many occasions....., who else would bring a bodhran to the top of a seriously large mountain !! :) He made an impression on all those he met. Ger, you will be sadly missed Paddy Callaghan EE92

It seems strange what things stick in your mind over the years, but my lasting memory of Ger is being his Physics lab partner in 2nd year in college, and spending most of that time singing "If this is it" by Huey Lewis & the News, while trying to electrocute each other with the equipment from a piezo-electrical experiment. I don't think either of us were destined to be physicists. Ger was one of the most universally popular characters in college. Rest in peace. Niall McCarthy - EE92.