Mostafa Mahmoud Salameh goes about his day-to-day life in Edinburgh unnoticed, and he’s happy with that. You would think he was a normal man living an average existence, that is, until you delve into the story of the last 10 years of his life.

Meeting with In The Winning Zone in an Edinburgh coffee shop, Salameh told this story, one which took him from the lowest point on earth in Jordan, to the highest point on earth, at the summit of Mount Everest. It took him from working in a stressful job in a hotel to completing one of the most physically and psychologically challenges known to man.

Born in Jordan, Salameh came to Scotland to study a Masters degree and fell in love with Edinburgh. He took up a job at the Sheraton hotel in the city centre and he grew to detest his lifestyle.

“I’d been working in a hotel  for 10 years and I just had enough and I think it just came from nowhere, I just woke up one morning and I thought ‘I want to do something substantial.’

“I wasn’t a fit guy, I was clubbing at the weekend, smoking cigarettes a lot and working in a responsible and exhausting job. I didn’t even know the seven summits existed, I knew Everest was the highest point but I had no idea about its height”

Salameh invited his friends to the hotel for dinner and told them his dream to reach the top of the seven highest mountains in the world. Knowing that he had absolutely no experience or background in mountain climbing, his friends welcomed his announcement with laughter.

Salameh changed his ways and decided to research mountain climbing. Having never set foot on a mountain, he was entering unknown territory, and it showed when he began to publicise his dream to reach the highest point on earth.

The local newspaper took him to Arthur’s Seat, a hill in the centre of Edinburgh. The photographer asked him to climb a small ridge, less then ten feet off the ground but he was unable to do it. “I was standing there with absolutely no idea how to climb it, the photographer must have thought I was joking,” he said.

This hurdle didn’t hold Salameh back, indeed it spurred him on to learn and become comfortable with the mountains. He began his journey by searching for sponsorship and funding for his arduous challenge.

He went back to Jordan to try to secure sponsorship. “Everyone laughed in my face, nobody was interested, they thought I was mental.” Nonetheless, after writing letters to the Jordanian royal family, he received an answer. The novice had to climb the highest point in North America, Mount McKinley, and then the King of Jordan would support him and take his dream seriously.

Immediately, he flew out to Nepal to begin a long and strenuous learning curve which taught him the dangers of the mountains. He took four years out, climbing mountains, getting to grips with the challenges he faced and learning to take his body and mind to the limits.

In four years, Salameh progressed from being a hotel worker in Edinburgh to climbing the highest points in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Antarctica. However, his determination did come at a cost.

“I learned a lot but I had some accidents which could have cost me my life,” he said. “I fell down about 100 meters in a crevasse on Shishapangma [in Tibet] and seriously damaged  my neck and back and I got frostbite once or twice.”

Salameh’s greatest challenge however came when he contemplated the highest mountain on earth in 2005. He reached 24,000 feet on Mount Everest and had to make the tough decision to turn back due to a chest infection he had contracted. In 2007, he returned, only to turn back due to a stomach ulcer. In 2008, he returned and wasn’t going to return without having summited.

Salameh couldn’t afford to pay for a company to support him on his climb so he took every opportunity to support himself. “I sold my flat and my car and my savings, i used everything to go for Everest, on my own.”

He also searched for advice from the best in the business, who gave him an insight into the extreme stresses Everest inflicts on the body. “I found that the only things I actually lacked was the understanding, mostly medically, about my body. I met Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Straut and they explained everything to me, I got all the injections I needed and I started to understand it.”

The Jordanian, who now carries a British passport and calls Scotland his home, sold his flat and his car, used all of his savings, and went to Nepal with the knowledge and belief that this was his time and he was going to reach the summit of the highest mountain on earth.

He hired a Sherpa and took to the mountain. En route to his greatest achievement, he saw the stark reality of the danger of Mount Everest. Upon arrival at the south summit, the adopted Scot came across a Swiss climber who had summited just seven hours before Salameh.

“He went up without oxygen and climbed it, he had no Sherpa with him or anything, and then came down, sat on the south summit and never stood up. We went to help him, put some oxygen in his mouth but he was gone.”

He admits that this was a blow but he was “so strong” on this attempt that he forced himself through the psychological hurdle and eventually summited on May 25th, Jordanian Independence day.

“It was amazing. I can’t explain it really,” he says of reaching the highest point on earth. “Something out of this world, standing in the top. The weather is absolutely fantastic. My Sherpa and I sat there for 45 minutes talking, it was incredible”

Although he did experience the physical strains of climbing, Salameh admits that the challenges he faced were all mental. “You need to be fit, of course, and I did lots of training and stuff. But if you don’t have it in your head, it doesn’t matter what muscle you have, it’s not going to make you good. You need to concentrate 100% and also you need to have it in your heart.”

After his successes summiting Everest, Mostafa Mahmoud Salameh was knighted by the king of Jordan for becoming the first Jordanian to complete this monumental challenge. However, he continues live a normal life in Edinburgh, and he is still filled with the same determination as he speaks with a Scottish twang about his next challenge.

By the end of next year, Salameh hopes to have completed expeditions the highest point in Australia, completing his dream of reaching the seven highest summits in the world. He also plans to reach both the North and South Poles, which will be perhaps his greatest challenge yet, but he believes he can do it, and that almost confirms that he will be successful.

IC
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