He spends his days in bed, needs help walking, and is a century old. But that isn’t stopping Norman Vaughan, a veteran of Admiral Richard Byrd’s 1928 South Pole expedition, from laying on a major birthday plan. What’s his idea? This December he plans to climb Mount Vaughan, the 10,300 foot bump on Antarctica that Byrd named after him. Vaughan has already walked up the thing as an 89-year old. This time he plans to ride a sledge–dubbed the Norm Hauler–until he reaches the top. And once he gets there he’ll crack open a bottle of champagne and take his first real sip of alcohol. ”I told my mother I wouldn’t drink until I was 100,” Vaughan tells the Chicago Sun Times, which has a nice profile of the teetotaling old geezer. Hope he’s got some good swill. The bad stuff might just finish him off…
Admiral BRRR..D: “Harrump! I can’t believe ol’ Normie is still alive. Though maybe I would have survived longer if I wasn’t so damn lazy about scraping snow off my head…”
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The Earthist Chronicles 