January 27, 1980

Editor: ANDY FRASER Tel. 980-0511

Climb up the Lions ‘dangerous’

He's sitting ontop

ALONE AT THE TOP, Maxim Dejong takes his own picture while on top of The Lions. The cable release can be
seen In his left hand. Dejong wears special ‘crampons' or attachments to his boots for ice climbing, and uses the ice

axe extensively. (Maxim Dejong photo)

By ANDY FRASER

‘It was dangerous’ is
the way 20 year old
Maxim Dejong
described the last 300
feet of his solitary
climb up the Lions
Head last weekend.

The young Cap College
student has five years of
climbing to his credit, much
of it in the Alps, but the last
part of the local climb was
one of the toughest he can
recall.

Poor ice coupled with
some ‘very cold’ weather
slowed the experienced
young Dutch-Canadian to a
literal crawl over the same
terrain he had ‘scrambled
over’ in the summer.

While the famous land-
marks are not known as
difficult climbs in good
weather, Dejong does not
recommend it for the novice
or the day hiker.

The climb was far more
difficult than had _ been

Toilet paper - a great oil filte

“e

he world

expected, although he had
tried it two weeks before,
but had run into very poor

ice conditions and had come
back.

Having climbed Mont
Bianc in the French Alps last
summer, the science’ student
who was educated in
Belgium after having been
born in Canada,- is well
versed in tough climbs. He
always climbs alone, perhaps
a reflection of the fact that
he comes from a ‘non-
climbing family.’

Living just outside of
Antwerp, Belgium Dejong
discovered a book on moun-
taineering about six years
ago. But because the terrain
was totally flat, he started
out climbing dikes and silos
before his parents started
taking their holidays in the
Alps.

From that point on
chmbing has become more
than a hobby for the young

CONTINUED ON PAGE B2