For Release: June 11 , 2007
Breathitt County's Martin Douthitt, who plans to climb North America's highest mountain this summer, is Bill Goodman's guest on the next edition of One to One , airing Friday, June 29 at 10/9 p . m . CT and Sunday, July 1 at 2/1 p.m. CT on KET1.If Douthitt reaches the summit of Alaska's Mount McKinley -- which soars to 20,320 feet -- he will have achieved six of the so-called "Seven Summits," the world's highest peaks on each of the seven continents. The peak remaining? The highest of them all, Mount Everest, at just over 29,000 feet.
Douthitt, 61, runs a hardware and landscaping business in Jackson and has been interested in mountain climbing since he was a child, although he didn't pursue it seriously until 1999. In the past, Douthitt has said that because of his age and the costs involved he probably would never attempt to climb Everest. But he said recently he'd be tempted if he gets to the top of Mount McKinley, also known as Denali. "I've got to get up Denali first, and I might not make that," he said. "But I might at least go up to the base camp on Everest, get started and see how far I could get. I definitely don't have a death wish. But I think I ' d regret it the rest of my life if I didn ' t at least try."
One to One is a KET production, produced by Bill Goodman and Cindy Asher. Following the broadcast, One to One is available for on-demand videostream viewing at www.ket.org/publicaffairs/onetoone.htm and podcasting at www.ket.org/rss. More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at www.ket.org.