A watchmaker who conquered Mt Everest twice

At first glance itself,one can tell Mike Kobold is not someone who will say no to adventure.

At first glance itself,one can tell Mike Kobold is not someone who will say no to adventure. Indeed,on a dare thrown at him during a charity dinner for the US Navy SEALS,Kobold,who owns the Kobold Watch Company,took it upon himself to raise money for the Navy SEALS by climbing Mt Everest twice.

Kobold,who was in the city recently,spoke about his trip to the summit and his work for the Navy SEALS. I climbed the mountain twice,in 2009 and 2010. More than any personal reasons,I wanted to climb to raise money for the US Navy SEALS, he said.

At an annual charity dinner for the Navy SEALS in New York,in 2009,the SEALS suggested that Kobot climb the summit to create awareness and raise money for them.

Kobold trained along with the SEALS at their base in Coronado,California for two months in preparation for the same. He said,The preparation was mainly aimed at teaching me high altitude survival,use of survival oxygen and deal with stress and fatigue. We had discussed the idea earlier at my base in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania,and thought it was a fantastic way to support the Navy SEAL Fund.

His first climb to Mt Everest was along with legendary explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes in 2009. Describing the experience as serene,silent and dangerous,Kobold said,You cannot take anything for granted. Not even the people. On the first trip up,my Oxygen supply stopped working and when I was nearing the top,there was a mountaineer who was apparently stressed owing to the extreme conditions and he tried to throw me off.

On his return,he bought back a piece of rock from the mountaintop. The rock face has been cut and polished and used to make 25 limited edition Kobold Himalaya watches. Kobold said the idea struck him when he was on the mountaintop. We polished and graded the rock to make the dial of the limited edition watch. In fact,we trained two Sherpas for a year at our factory in Pittsburgh,after which they came back to Nepal and made the watches. Of our entire line-up,this is the only model that is made in Nepal. The watch costs $16,500 and the money earned from the sales are for the Sherpas who make them, he says.

However,Kobold added they were not able to make the target sum of $250,000 both the times he scaled the peak.

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We did make a sizeable contribution but couldnt achieve the target. Our endeavours were also sponsored by North Face Equipment,Hersheys Chocolate Company that sent us 5,000 bars of chocolate and Hyatt Group of Hotels. Though we couldnt achieve our aim fully,it was a good challenge to take up.

While Kobold firmly said his mountaineering days are behind him,he added his philanthrophy and adventure days were not.

For our next adventure,we will be driving a donated fire truck to Kathmandu,Nepal. We would like to give the truck to the people of Nepal,who have been so wonderful and kind to us. The fire department in Kathmandu is in serious need of good infrastructure and we are hoping to help, he signed off.

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