10 —- Wednesday, November 15, 1989 - North Shore News MOUNTAIN CLIMBER SPEAKS TO COLLINGWOOD STUDENTS Hillary talks on Everest adventure FEAR DROVE Sir Edmund Hillary up the world’s highest mountain peak 36 years ago. By MICHAEL BECKER News Reporter Hillary, 70, who, climbing with the late Tenzing Norgay, was the first man to reach the peak of Mount Everest, visited West Van- couver recently to address a group of Collingwood School students. “Fear is enormously important. Climbing high mountains is such hard work and incredibly boring sometimes. You just drive your way on at high altitudes — thin air, panting and puffing and all the SIR Edmund Hillary ...fear is essential. rest of it. Unless you’re afraid a little bit here and there, you just wouldn’t go through the trouble,” he remarked. “You need the stim- ulation of fear and the fact that you have to overcome your own fear to overcome some of the technical problems. Anybody I hear who says they’re never afraid have either never done anything or they’re just telling a fib.”* Hillary shared slides and adven- ture anecdotes with the school’s senior students. He has par- ticipated in numerous expeditions all over the world, including leading the first vehicle party to travel overland to the South Pole. But the conquest of Everest on May 29, 1953, as a member of a British team, secured the New Zealander’s place in the history books. : ' Hillary included slides in his presentation of ‘‘that ancient old climb of ours on Mount Everest way back in 1953.’’ But ironically, he has no picture of himself atop the peak. Quipped Hillary, “‘No, there isn’t any picture of me stand- ing on tep of Mount Everest. And you might well ask, was | in actual fact there? Of course someone had to take the photograph and Tenz- ing didn’t have a camera. And as far as ! was aware. he'd never taken a photograph in his life. The summit of Everest didn’t seem the ideai place io give him photographic instruction.”” Luckily for Hillary,. Tenzing didn’t require mountaineering skills instruction during a trial run up a massive and dangerous ice fall Situated between the Everest base camp at the bottom of the moun- tain and the 21,000-foot-level ad- vance camp. Hillary almost lost his life when he fell down into a deep ice crevasse, but Tenzing saved him from death while on the return trip from the advance camp. Hillary had jumped onto a big chunk of ice stuck against an ice wall. The ice pave way and Hillary dropped down the crevasse. Recalled Hillary, ‘‘We've all heard how in moments of great stress it's traditional for your whole life to pass before your mind. 1 don’t remember that happening, but one unusual thing did occur. Everything seemed to start going slowly. My mind was working very quickly indeed. And even though | was falling clear, it was only as if I was going down in a slow lift. I had plenty of time to think.” The ‘slow-motion’ action allow- ed him to react quickly when the ice chunk he was falling with began to twist. “I realized that I might soon be crushed against the icy wail of the crevasse. Almost instinctively, I flexed my knees and leaped up in the air and carried on falling. 1 was now a few feet clear of the falling ice chunk. Time passed and J came to the reluctant conclusion that if the rope didn’t come tight pretty soon I would come to a very sticky end on the bottom of the crevasse,’’ he said. As that nasty bit of revelation sank in, Tenzing drove his ice axe into the snow above the crevasse and whipped the rope around it. The rope came tight with a twang and Hillary was saved to carry on to greater glory. And while the Everest conquest can arguably be called the pinnacle of Hillary’s climbing career, it is the post-Everest work he has done for the mountain people of Nepal that has provided him the most satisfaction in life. In the ensuing years Hillary has brought about the construction of 25 schools, three airfields, two hospitals, and 13 village clinics. Since 1974, the Canadian Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation has supported the operation of medical Audience needed for tapings CAPILANO College’s media resources program is looking for audience members for a seven-part series on the Vancouver restaurant scene, currently being produced at the college’s main North Shore campus. The series, Table For Two, will feature segments on all aspects of the local restaurant industry and will be 2ired some time early next year on Shaw Cable. Segments are being taped Nov. 20, 26 and 27 at the Capilano Col- lege studio. Two of the segments have al- ready been taped. iB.C.’S SECRET WEAPON he Nov. 20 production will focus on restaurants from a food critic’s point of view and is sched- uled to begin at 3 p.m. Four subsequent segments, featuring food and how restau- rants are successful, entertainment catering, and nutrition, will be taped on Nov. 26 and Nov. 27. Taping times on both days will be 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Audience members should arrive at least 30 minutes before the show times. Anyone interested in attending the shows should call the college’s media resources department at 986-1911 local 2171 or local 2940. AGAINST DRINKING DRIVERS Provide police with car type/ colour, licence, location and direction it was going. clinics and is also funding a five- year, one-million tree reforestation project for the Sagamartha Na- tional Park in Nepal. Hillary is currently travelling across the country to raise funds to rebuild the Tengboche monastery which burned down January in the Khumbu region of Neral. Kacey Rylan Manager Said Hillary: ‘‘The monastery is encrmously important to the local people up in the Everest area. It's their main religious and cultural centre and they really want to see it rebuilt. We have agreed that we would do what we can to raise funds to bring it more or less back to the way it was."’ Jason Wakabayashi Sales CANADIAN body ’ oi COS! Pshop Est. 1956... . 922.2500 | 4 1431 Ci Ave. ORTH SHORE! Laila Nielsen Sales Established in 1930 by John and Molly Mills, Mills Paint is owned and operated by Jack Mills and his sons Grant, Greg, Dave, John and Jim. The Mills family invite you to drop down and see them at 3rd and Lonsdale. Citizens [rust ~WELCOMES YOU TO AN OPEN HOUSE AT OUR NEW LONSDALE QUAY BRANCH Drop in and join us for free refreshments and a chat aboit our services including lf PERSONAL ACCOUNTS lk’ MORTGAGES l@ TERM DEPOSITS l RRSP’s § FOREIGN EXCHANGE lf TRAVELLER'S CHEQUES Find us at 151 Chadwick Court, next to the Seabus Terminal Entrance From 12:00 to 5:00 PM.. Friday 17 November: Citizens Trust | Serving vou better in so many ways.