New York man survives harrowing climb

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NEW YORK, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A 60-year-old New York man says a global positioning system device helped save him and his companions during a mountain climb in Antarctica.

Veteran climber Bob Pospischil of Nesconset said while he and six other climbers successfully made it to the summit of Antarctica's Vinson Massif, they became trapped and running perilously low on food during their journey back down, Newsday reported Sunday.

"We were stuck in a storm for four days, down to one day of food," Pospischil said of his recent adventure on the 16,066-foot mountain.

Posposchil, who is attempting to climb the highest mountains on the world's seven continents, said it wasn't until his group learned of a hidden cache of food that the climbing threat was lessened.

"We found two duffels, with crackers and cheese and noodles and things like that," said Posposchil, whose group was given the GPS coordinates for the buried food. "And there were three back-to-back storms. We were stuck there three more days."

Despite his near-death climb in December, the New York resident told Newsday he is next planning to tackle Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro before making a second attempt on Mount Everest.