Local businesswoman 'summiting' her goals

Mar. 13—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Businesswoman and mountaineer Julie Beall-McKelvey, 54, describes what she does for fun:

"It's really hard. It's so cold — it's minus 40 degrees at the summit. You can't breathe. You have no energy and you are suffering."

The owner of Miracle-Ear franchises across Pennsylvania — including Richland Township, Somerset and Ebensburg — Beall-McKelvey is preparing for a two-month climb of the world's tallest mountain in April and May.

Mount Everest, located on the border of Nepal and China, will be the sixth summit she has reached since her quest to conquer the highest mountain on each continent. Together, they are referred to as the seven summits. She has "summited" Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mount Elbrus in Europe, Mount Aconcagua in South America, Mount Vinson in Antarctica and Denali, also known as Mount McKinley, in Alaska.

Beall-McKelvey, of Camp Hill, Cumberland County, is combining her passion for mountain climbing with her other passion: Helping people hear better. She is raising money for the nonprofit Miracle-Ear Foundation, which provides hearing aids for children and adults who can't afford the devices.

She has dubbed her quest Summits for Sound in honor of the foundation's slogan, "Giving the Gift of Sound."

Mount Everest has been a major goal since she started the seven summits endeavor, but the legendary mountain has always been on her mind.

"I've had a fascination with this mountain since I was little," Beall-McKelvey said, explaining that she would read books and articles to learn more about the world's tallest mountain.

That knowledge is valuable as she trains for the toughest climb of her life.

Beall-McKelvey spends 20 hours a week training, in addition to overseeing dozens of Miracle-Ear locations.

Three days a week are spent going up and down her favorite Cumberland County mountain, which is part of the Appalachians. She carries a backpack during the treks, with a 50-pound pack one day a week. Then there's cardio, leg and treadmill training with a treadmill raised to 40 degrees.

"I've been training for five years straight, six days a week," she said. "I'm tired all the time, I'm hungry all the time and something hurts."

Scaling the first five mountains has helped her prepare for Everest, which at 29,032 feet, towers more than 6,000 feet higher than Aconcagua, the second-highest of the seven summits.

National Geographic's website says the British picked the name Everest after 19th-century British surveyor Sir George Everest. The Tibetan name is Chomolungma, which means "mother goddess of the world," or simply, "holy mother."

Edmund Hillary, a mountaineer from New Zealand, and his Tibetan guide Tenzing Norgay are credited with first reaching Everest's summit in 1953. Since then, more than 63,000 people have stood on the world's highest point. More than 300 have died in the attempt.

Beall-McKelvey understands the risks.

When climbing Denali, there is a ridge between Camp 3 and Camp 4 that is too narrow to pass safely.

"There's only room for one way," Beall- McKelvey said. "It is super dangerous and very exposed. You're already up super high in altitude."

Normally, climber etiquette calls for the descending team to allow the ascending team to transverse the ridge first, but the team Beall-McKelvey's team met had other ideas.

"This team decided they were going to barrel right through," she said. "They didn't speak English, and they were clipping onto my rope that was tied to my guide instead of the mountain.

"I've never been that scared in my life. I really thought something was going to go terribly wrong because one slip and you basically fall."

Even being tied to the mountain would be no guarantee of safety in that situation, she said.

"That was the first time in all these mountains that I was like: You know, this is really dangerous," she said. "Even though I knew it was dangerous — I really knew it then."

Mount Vinson in Antarctica has been her favorite mountain so far.

"It's so beautiful and isolated and so few people have stood there," Beall-McKelvey said.

She recalls the experience with joy, even though she was still recovering from a fall while training on her home mountain four days before she left for Antarctica.

"My face fell directly on a rock that broke 12 of my teeth," she said.

"But I summited."

If she is able to summit Everest, that leaves the final mountain in the seven-summit challenge. Number seven is actually up for debate.

At 7,310 feet, Mount Kosciuszko is the highest point in continental Australia. But many consider the larger area of Oceania — including New Zealand, New Guinea and Indonesia — as the seventh continent. That makes Puncak Jaya, also known as the Carstensz Pyramid, the highest at 16,024 feet.

Beall-McKelvey has been signed up to climb Carstensz Pyramid for three years, but the mountain has been shut down by civil unrest in the Independent State of Papua, New Guinea.

"I'm kind of sick of waiting for it, so I'm just going to do the one in Australia and be done with it," she said. "Assuming I can summit Everest."

Beall-McKelvey is already planning the Mount Kosciuszko trip.

"It's just a little 7,000(-foot) climb," she said. "The plan is to do that with my husband and kids in December this year or January."

Bobby McKelvey and their sons Jacob, 18, and Jackson, 14, have been her greatest supporters. She credits her husband with staying home to take care of the house and family so she has time to train and climb mountains.

Julie Beall-McKelvey's fundraiser for the Miracle-Ear Foundation has already brought in more than $34,000 toward her goal of $50,000 for the Mount Everest climb.

More information on supporting the effort is available at pledge.giftofsound.org/everest.