  Source: The Niarchos family. |
| Constantine Niarchos was the first Greek to summit Mt. Everest, on May 13th, 1999. The news reached us very late, because he wished so. We tried, with a big help from Aris Theodoropoulos, to collect news from newspapers and Internet sites and we report them here. The final confirmation came through the reply to Ari's mail, from Lindsay Griffin, publisher of High Magazine | |
Everest News reports: | |
| NEWSFLASH 6/4/99 12:58PM EST On May 13th, 21 Climbers reached the Summit of Everest from the South Side. He had been a climber for several years. One of his favorite climbing partners was Augusto Urtega (1958), Businessman of Muaras, Peru. He would go to Everest with Augusto on the OTT expedition. He contacted with one of the most respected Expedition companies in the world, OTT Expeditions from the UK. He made arrangements with the Ministry of Nepal not to release the list of names on his expedition on Everest. Everest News learned early in the Spring there was a couple of mystery climbers. But frankly did not know which expedition they were on. When receiving the lists of climbers from our sources in Nepal the OTT list did not come. Several reasons were given which changed each time. We began to wonder... Everest News then contacted OTT for the expedition climbers list. They refused. We then figured it out. We told OTT we would respect a climber request not to be reported on, at least not until he left the mountain. OTT still did not sent a list. We told OTT, You know we will find out, if you give us the names we will hold them. OTT sent a list of climbers which did not include the two mystery climbers... We added a little note on on expedition page by the OTT list, which no one ever seems to have noticed... Our normal sources in Nepal then told us that the Ministry of Tourism in Nepal was not releasing the OTT list. He had covered all angles. We were glad we got the list of the others from OTT... Everest News soon learned the names of the climbers after Everest began, but respected the climbers wishes and did not report on them... When summits reports were issued our normal numerous sources reported and confirmed that both of these climbers had reached the Summit on May 13th. Sadly they also reported that a climber was missing, Mike Matthews. On Saturday May 15th (US) the news of which was released to the public, after Everest News had requested to the family through OTT to release the name to calm many fears..... Everest News was in a difficult position, to report or not to report. The Matthews family agreed to release the name and things calmed down. We have the highest respect for the Matthew's family. The death of Mike Matthews frankly keep the much of the media busy. As things began to calm this week Everest News figured it was time to release their names.... Then on Tuesday of this week, Everest News learned that Constantine Niarchos, one of the richest men in the world had died on Tuesday due to a suspected heart attack after being admitted into the hospital. He was 37. Climbers said Constantine Niarchos had a great time on Everest and he made many new friends. Constantine was also said to be among the strongest climbers on the mountain in 1999. Climbers reported to Everest News that he was fine after he descended Everest. Other reliable sources have reported to us directly, that he was fine after he left Everest. Hard for us to say too much more. But it would be interesting to know if they actually spoke with any climbers for some of those stories. We can tell you the climbers we spoke with in the last 24 hours did not know of his death... | |
Ķepal News reports: | |
| KATHMANDU, May 16 - On Thursday, a British climber from Yorkshire, last seen on the way down from the summit, was reported missing. Michael Matthews, 22, of Sheffield, Yorkshire, had scaled the Everest with Christopher Brown, 53, of North Yorkshire and Constantine Niarchos, 37, of Moitz, Switzerland. The ministry said there was no news on the missing climber. | |
The Greek newspaper TA NEA reported: | |
| 08-06-1999 Teh afternoon London newspaper Evening Standard reveals facts of Constantine Niarchos's personal life, signed by reporter and Niarchos's friend Nigel Rosser. Niarchos was interested in climbing and on May 15th, together with 2 friends, decided to summit the difficult Everest peak. During this expedition one of Niarchos's co-climbers was lost. The Greek tycoon tried to descend as fast as he could; this, according to his friends, along with the high alteration in altitude, created a health problem to his organism, which was laready vulnerable from drug use. | |
Finally, the publisher of High Magazine sent the following reply: | |
| Yes he did and was the first Greek to climb Everest. There was a total of 15 members of Jon Tinker's expedition reached the summit that day. He had previously climbed Aconcagua and Cho Oyu with Jon. He was a Swiss resident from St Moritz but also owned houses in Arizona and I think the UK.. His death from a heart attack in London was totally unconnected with his trip to Nepal.Jon went to the funereal in Switzerland last week. | |