Logo

Log In Sign Up |  An official publication of: American College of Emergency Physicians
Navigation
  • Home
  • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
  • Clinical
    • Airway Managment
    • Case Reports
    • Critical Care
    • Guidelines
    • Imaging & Ultrasound
    • Pain & Palliative Care
    • Pediatrics
    • Resuscitation
    • Trauma & Injury
  • Resource Centers
    • mTBI Resource Center
  • Career
    • Practice Management
      • Benchmarking
      • Reimbursement & Coding
      • Care Team
      • Legal
      • Operations
      • Quality & Safety
    • Awards
    • Certification
    • Compensation
    • Early Career
    • Education
    • Leadership
    • Profiles
    • Retirement
    • Work-Life Balance
  • Columns
    • ACEP4U
    • Airway
    • Benchmarking
    • Brief19
    • By the Numbers
    • Coding Wizard
    • EM Cases
    • End of the Rainbow
    • Equity Equation
    • FACEPs in the Crowd
    • Forensic Facts
    • From the College
    • Images in EM
    • Kids Korner
    • Medicolegal Mind
    • Opinion
      • Break Room
      • New Spin
      • Pro-Con
    • Pearls From EM Literature
    • Policy Rx
    • Practice Changers
    • Problem Solvers
    • Residency Spotlight
    • Resident Voice
    • Skeptics’ Guide to Emergency Medicine
    • Sound Advice
    • Special OPs
    • Toxicology Q&A
    • WorldTravelERs
  • Resources
    • ACEP.org
    • ACEP Knowledge Quiz
    • Issue Archives
    • CME Now
    • Annual Scientific Assembly
      • ACEP14
      • ACEP15
      • ACEP16
      • ACEP17
      • ACEP18
      • ACEP19
    • Annals of Emergency Medicine
    • JACEP Open
    • Emergency Medicine Foundation
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Medical Editor in Chief
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Awards
    • Authors
    • Article Submission
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright Information

Emergency Physician Climbs the Seven Summits

By Jordan Grantham | on September 11, 2023 | 3 Comments
Features
  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Print-Friendly Version

Ben Mattingly, MD, tries to live by the adage, “One should be adventurous and daring, but not reckless.” The challenge is that the line between adventurous and reckless is often paper-thin. Take, for example, his recent expedition to Nepal to summit Mount  Everest. When he arrived at the base camp, he found out three rope-fixing sherpas had just been killed in the famously dangerous Khumbu Icefall. When he began his acclimatization climb, he and his guide kept getting stuck in long lines of fellow climbers, and his feet were on the verge of frostbite. Later, when another climber who was attached to his same fixed line slipped, Dr. Mattingly was also yanked off his feet and slammed into the ice, narrowly avoiding a broken leg. Risks are everywhere, and it’s enough to make anyone second-guess the quest.

You Might Also Like
  • Emergency Physician Dr. Renee Salas Treats Injured in Nepal Earthquake
  • Boy Scout Jamboree Requesting Emergency Physician Volunteers
  • The Privilege of a Lifetime
Explore This Issue
ACEP Now: Vol 42 – No 09 – September 2023

Stranded by the excessive crowds of fellow climbers waiting to summit, Dr. Mattingly was considering giving up and turning back toward the base camp. Suddenly, the weather cleared, and his sherpa convinced him to keep going. Resolute, he committed himself to finishing the climb. After six weeks in Nepal, he reached the peak of the highest mountain in the world. Dr. Mattingly checked off the last peak on his quest to climb the Seven Summits and entered an elite club—only about 500 people have achieved this feat since it was conceived in the 1950s.

Starting Small

For Dr. Mattingly, climbing the Seven Summits wasn’t a lifelong goal. His first true adventure started when he and his wife, Jenni, had their first child when he was only 16 years old. This only fueled their desire to succeed and to “prove everyone wrong.” He first cultivated his love of climbing at the Red River Gorge in his home state of Kentucky while in college. They have always managed to incorporate their young children and family into their adventures from the very beginning. By the time he was in medical school, he and Jenni were proud parents of three children, and Dr. Mattingly used to promise his friends, “One day I’m going to travel the whole world.” Dr. Mattingly eventually made good on his promise, and now his children Jared, Adam, and Amber are old enough to join him on his global adventures.

It wasn’t until he started his emergency medicine residency at Baystate Medical Center in Massachusetts that he learned all about winter activities and reignited his love for extreme sports. When he had the opportunity to take his family to New Zealand for a year, he found himself teaching for the first wilderness medicine program outside the United States.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 | Single Page

Topics: Dr. Ben Mattingly

Current Issue

ACEP Now May 03

Download PDF

Read More

3 Responses to “Emergency Physician Climbs the Seven Summits”

  1. September 16, 2023

    Beth Brooks Reply

    Amazing tenacity and strength. Truly an inspiration.

  2. October 3, 2023

    mark rabold Reply

    Congrats and welcome to the club Ben

    • January 4, 2024

      Ben Mattingly Reply

      Thank you!

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*
*

Wiley
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Advertise
  • Cookie Preferences
Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 2333-2603