On October 29th, 2017, The Australian Mountaineer Dean Maher achieved his goal to climb to the top of Nepal’s Himalayan mountain which rises to the height of 7,126m. Maher went up to the mountain carrying equipment that’s 100% vegan and did it with little effort. One of the items he carried was the Vegan flag, which he waved proudly when he reached the peak of the Himlung Himal mountain in the Himalaya range.

We had the opportunity to ask Dean a few questions about his journey:

How difficult were the preparations for the journey, in terms of finding all the necessary equipment, that is also vegan-friendly?

Preparing the equipment for this trip wasn’t too bad but it’s does get a bit tricky with certain items. There’s quite a few options for tops and bottoms using synthetic insulation but it’s the gloves/mittens which is where it gets tricky. For the high altitude items if they don’t have leather palms they’re filled with feathers. I only narrowly avoided frost bite this year with my chosen gloves and I thought they would be ok. For my next trip I’m going to have to find a better alternative or risk losing some digits!

Is it the first time you climbed this type of height?

This was my 3rd time in Nepal. Last year I did the 3 passes trek, Everest base camp and climbed Island peak which is 6,189m. Next trip I’m hoping to climb Manaslu which is 8,163m. It’s safe to say I have the mountaineering bug!

How did it feel to raise the flag for the first time on one of the highest mountains in the world?

Waving the vegan flag was a very proud moment for me. It’s so great that the vegans of this world now have a flag to symbolise our passion. It will definitely be coming along on all my future climbs. One thing that’s needs mentioning is my absolute respect and admiration for the Sherpas of Nepal. They are super-humans that make everything possible in the mountains! I started uphill_vegan as a way of combining my passions of veganism and mountaineering and sharing them with whoever is interested. As long as I can stay fit and healthy I’m looking forward to challenging myself every year. Everest 2019 is on the cards, then who knows after that.

If you are also heading to a special place, take the vegan flag with you and share your photo with us.

Follow Dean on Instagram – instagram.com/uphill_vegan