As Himalaya Day approaches (commemorating Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay’s summit of Mt Everest) a Canberra man quietly mentions that he is the only Australian to have climbed all 14 of the world’s 8,000m peaks. Better yet, Andrew was the first in the world to complete them all with all his fingers and toes still attached.
Canberra mountaineer Andrew Lock has fortunately only ever had frost-nip, unlike previous climbers who have lost digits to frostbite. He has summited Mt Everest twice, although the first time was in a bit of a roundabout way.
“When I first climbed Everest in 2000, I climbed to within 100 metres of the summit with my team but we were unable to get to the summit because, traditionally, teams affix about 800m of rope from the highest camp at 8,000m to the summit,” Andrew explained. “Each of the four teams agreed to carry 200m of rope to share the burden of carrying it up and putting it in place. After we’d all placed our ropes where they needed to go, the final team said they hadn’t brought their ropes.”
Conversation around the dinner table that night must have been lively. So, Andrew and his team had to turn around and make the descent, then climb back to the top again a week later.
Andrew said he’s climbed Mt Everest a couple of times “for my sins”. Quite a physical achievement, although since his last climb, the mountain has grown a few millimetres so the challenge still taunts him.
That’s right, the Himalayas is the youngest mountain range in the world. Therefore, the tectonic plates are still moving and pushing the Himalayas upwards a few millimetres each year.
“I feel so inadequate, people are climbing a higher mountain now,” Andrew laughs.
The allure of the Himalayas is addictive and Andrew isn’t quite sure why.
“It’s not the adrenaline because it’s a very slow sport, that’s why you don’t see it in action films, it’s not a spectator sport,” he said. “It’s meditative, it demands so much focus that you really are concentrating on this one goal, whether it’s at a micro level like the next step, or the next camp, or the next mountain.”
Andrew said that when he returns from the Himalayan peaks, he comes home spiritually enriched and a much calmer person – “then it takes a few months for society to wear me down”.
Back home in Canberra, Andrew likes to amble up Mt Ainslie. But come spring, he’s off to Nepal to lead an expedition to climb a 7,000m peak.
“There are fourteen 8,000m peaks in the world,” he said. “Most of the other peaks are harder. Everest is the highest, then you have the 7,000 and 6,000 and 5,000 and so on until you get down to Mt Kosciuszko at 2,000m. Kosciuszko is one of seven highest summits of the seven continents, so it is a goal for people who set out to climb those seven summits.”
I’m not one to brag, but I conquered Mt Kosciuszko during a Year 9 school camp in the mid-‘80s (no ropes or frostbite).
Andrew got hooked on climbing at about the same time when he saw a slide show about the first Australians to climb Mt Everest.
“It was life-changing for me,” he said. “It was way back in the day before you could be guided up, so you had to learn how to climb. It took me years before I climbed Everest. By then I’d already climbed six of the other 8,000m peaks, I was one of the more experienced climbers in the world. Then I set about climbing all 14 of the world’s 8,000m peaks, Everest was that goal for many years but when I climbed it, I realised it’s just a step on the ladder to other things.”
Andrew Lock will be speaking at the Canberra Himalaya Day event is on 29 May, 6.30pm, at 7 by the Lake. Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/himalaya-day-events-2024
