CHO OYU 2006 ~ EVEREST 2004
Friendship Beyond Borders Expeditions

A Team of International Friends Helping Amputees Change the World

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Expedition Team Member
Tom McMillan, Expedition Leader

Everest Summiteer

A native of North Carolina, Tom (49 yrs) has enjoyed rock climbing and mountaineering in the US and abroad for over 35 years. He has experience in all types of climbing: high altitude mountaineering in the Great Ranges, general alpinism, technical rock climbing, big wall climbing, ice climbing, mixed climbing, and ski mountaineering.

With friends around the world, he has enjoyed such climbs as the Cassin Ridge of Denali (Alaska), the North Face of the Matterhorn (Switzerland), Bonatti Pillar (France), Central Pillar of Freney (Italy to France), peaks in the Cordillera Blanca (Peru), Mustagh Ata (China), the Canadian Rockies, and big walls in Yosemite (El Capitan in-a-day, Tempest, Tribal Rite, etc.).

Tom works as a Senior Software Developer for AMB Property Corporation in San Francisco. He lives with his wife, Linda (also a climber) in San Rafael, California, just north of San Francisco.

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In preparation for climbing Mount Everest in 2004, Tom climbed Mustagh Ata (7546 meters; 24757 feet) in the Xinjiang Province of western China in July 2003 with two friends from Colorado. Chad McFadden took this photo of Tom on the upper part of the mountain, showing the dramatic backdrop of the high peaks of northern Pakistan in the distance.

Tom and Linda McMillan (right) have enjoyed climbing together on some of the highest peaks of four continents, as here in the Cordillera Blanca of Peru in the Andes. Most of the year, they enjoy rock climbing closer to home in Yosemite and other parts of the Sierra Nevada of California.

This almost never happens: Tom and our team enjoyed crystal clear, windless weather on the morning they reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 16, 2004. The usually fierce resident Goddess of Everest, Chomolungma, was obviously pleased with their humanitarian reasons for climbing the mountain.


In 1998, Tom led an American expedition to climb the South Face of Annapurna in the western part of Nepal, looming here in the background behind Tom. It was on that expedition that Tom met Nawang, who served as our Sirdar/trekking guide for the group. That was the start of their "Friendship Beyond Borders".

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