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Norman's training for high altitude began in 1969 with a punishing solo 874 mile walk from John o' Groats to Land's End. He then made a score of ascents in the Alps, including the Matterhorn, the Eiger and Mont Blanc. In 1978 he led a successful expedition to Peru, where he and his team ascended three mountains, including the north summit of the country's highest mountain, Huascaran, (6,654m - 21,830ft).
   In 1981 he reached the top of his first Himalayan peak, White Needle (6,706m - 22,000ft) in Kashmir. The same year, on an expedition to Argentina, he seemed faced with failure when his left artificial leg broke because of metal fatigue, yet he set off on one leg to crawl and walk on crutches to the top of a mountain of 5,115m (16,801ft)! The next year he succeeded on Muztagh Ata (7,546m - 24,757ft) in China. His ascents of mountains in excess of 3,000m (9,840ft) number eighty, including sixteen above 6,000 (19,680ft).
   His first attempt at an 8,000 metre peak ended when he was injured by a falling rock. On his second try, the leader of a commercial expedition, having accepted fees to organise an expedition supposedly for the benefit of his clients, proceeded to the summit with a sherpa, without giving an opportunity to any clients. Norman's third attempt ended at about 7,600m (25,00ft) because of frostbite. Not being one to give
  up easily, without bottled oxygen, he climbed the sixth highest mountain in
   the world, Cho Oyo in Tibet, which stands at 8,201m (26,906ft). On the descent he
    survived a night out at 7,800m without a tent or sleeping bag, by removing his legs
    and sliding inside his large, lightweight rucksack.
                "This produced the season's most outstanding ascent of the mountain and
             indeed one of the most outstanding in Nepal/Tibet when Norman reached the
              summit with his Sherpa companion." High Magazine                  > Page 2