'Crazy Swede' scales the Everest after cycling 13,000 km from Sweden

Stockholm: Swedish mountaineer and adventurer Goran Kropp grabbed eyeballs across the globe when he cycled 13,000 km from Stockholm to the base camp of Mount Everest before sumitting the world's highest peak.

And after scalling the peak, without using any oxygen cylinder, he cycled back to Sweden.

Kropp's mountaineering escapades began at the age of six, when he scaled Norway's Galdhopiggen, which is 8,100 feet above the sea level, with his father.

After a stint in the military as Parachute Ranger in 1988, Kropp began climbing a number of mountain peaks. In 1995, he decided to scale the Everest.

Dubbed as 'Crazy Swede' for his daring exploits, Kropp began his jouney from Stockholm on October 16, 1995, and reached the Everest base camp in April 1996.

Before Kropp, 900 others had scaled the top of the Everest using oxygen cylinders.

A few had dared to climb without it, but Kropp was the only one who neither used oxygen cylinders nor rented a yak or a sherpa to carry his climbing gear to the top. He relied on his own strength and grit to carry his tent and supplies all the way.

When asked why he took up the gruelling experience, he said, " I wanted an adventure that was truly unprecedented."

Though Kropp had superhuman abilities, he certainly did not have a death wish in his head. He never took lifethreatening risks to satisfy his hunger for adventure.

On one occassion, he climbed back to the peak after descending a trecherous 350 feet as it was getting late and unsafe for such a move.

After completing the humungous journey, Kropp relocated with his fiancee Renata Chlumska in Seattle, US in 2002.

However, his very taste for adventure turned fatal for him. On September 30, 2002, the famed Swedish adventurer died from a fall while rock climbing. When he was ascending the Air Guitar route near the town of Vantage in Washington, Kropp's gearbag split open and he fell to his death 60 feet down.

He was only 35 years old at the time. Though he was young, his mind-boggling exploits have put a mark on the world map.