The Girl Who Climbed Everest

by Sue Williams

  But, unlike Alyssa, he didn’t immediately feel the physical pull of the summit. ‘No, I think I just thought that was Dad’s deal,’ he says now. ‘But later, as I got more into my teens, it started to appeal a lot more. I started going on journeys of my own, getting into the Himalaya and climbing, and then I started thinking about it more. Eventually, I became hooked, and decided I really wanted to climb the big one.’

  Of Alyssa, he says, ‘Everything about her seems to suggest she possesses great fortitude. And passion. The key thing you need is to have the fire burning inside you, you need to really want to get out there and get to the top.’

  Peter Hillary certainly has that in spades, and he ended up climbing on Everest five times, summitting twice. The first time he reached 8300 metres on the exceedingly difficult western ridge, and then summitted in 1990 from the southern route, becoming part of the first father-and-son duo – separately – to ever reach the top. He summitted again in 2002 as part of a National Geographic Society expedition to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Hillary and Tenzing’s climb, along with the Sherpa’s son, Jamling Norgay. In addition, he’s climbed many other of the world’s highest mountains and has trekked to the South Pole and landed in a small plane on the North Pole, in the illustrious company of astronaut Neil Armstrong.

  Like Alyssa, he always longed for a life of high adventure. ‘I’ve always loved being involved in challenging endeavours and going to places that I know will involve a lot of hard work,’ he says. ‘I think to a certain extent, you’ve either got that drive or you haven’t. I’m one of those people who’ve always had that.’

  Indeed, that’s one of the reasons Alyssa, from her childhood reading about her mountaineering and trekking idols, so respects both him and his father. Sir Edmund, who died in 2008, was a quietly spoken man with immense reserves of determination to succeed against all the odds. His son is cut from exactly the same cloth.

  ‘They’re both pretty amazing people,’ says Alyssa. ‘They both seem humble but they’ve both achieved so much. Sir Edmund was a beekeeper but he was the first man to make it to the top of Everest. That’s huge! I love that side of it, that it was his drive to get there which made him so successful. No one at that stage knew whether it would even be possible to get up there. Mallory might have been to the top, but he didn’t live to tell the tale. So climbing Everest in those kinds of conditions would have been enormously challenging.

  ‘Peter Hillary has also gone on to do so much, and to have adventures around the world. His books about his exploits have always really inspired me. When he talks about how necessary it is to have the fire inside you, that’s exactly how I feel. I don’t know what I’ll be able to achieve in my life, but I know I have the drive, and I’m willing to put in all the hard work it might take.’

  For Hillary believes that when you get results, there are few better feelings in the world. He loves the challenge of climbing mountains, the camaraderie of his fellow climbers, the adventure, the not knowing what each day might bring, and then, finally, hopefully, the accomplishment of reaching the goal.

  Naturally, he’s had his share of tragedies along with the triumphs. He’s fought for his life through storms, avalanches and accidents. In 1984 he was climbing Everest’s dangerous west ridge when two of his teammates, Australians Craig Nottle and Fred From, lost their footing at 7800 metres and disappeared down a steep slope to their deaths. Hillary abandoned that expedition immediately.

  In 1995 he was climbing the world’s second highest mountain, the notoriously dangerous K2, when he predicted a change in the weather. He turned back just a few hundred metres from the summit, but others decided to go on to the top without him. Soon after, a violent storm descended and killed seven members of his expedition.

  ‘In a place like the Himalaya, you have a lot of challenging experiences,’ he says. ‘There are times when you have to concentrate on your own survival and you’re thinking much more about the possibility of getting down safely than getting up. But then you have other times you can describe as a “textbook” ascent. Some of the climbs can be technically less demanding, but conditions can easily push you to the edge.’

  As for Alyssa, he hopes her dream to climb Everest will come true, and she’ll be able to make it to the top. Some young people can be incredibly mature for their age, he believes, and what matters much more than someone’s relative youth on a mountain are their individual qualities.

  ‘It’s still about the blaze within someone, that’s what will push them on when things get difficult,’ he says. ‘It’s also their dedication and the amount of preparation they put into it. I try to stay away from encouraging climbs on big mountains where the main motivation might be a record, like the youngest to do it or the oldest, but for many people, it’s not about that. It’s about the passion and the ambition and the appetite for challenge. And as long as they have a strong grasp of reality too, and know the dangers, then they might well be successful.

  ‘But it’s mostly about that fire, and she seems to have plenty of that.’

  CHAPTER 9

  The First Trials

  ‘To walk through life in a comfortable way is still not my goal.’

  – SWISS ROCK CLIMBER AND MOUNTAINEER UELI STECK

  with Alyssa now nursing a dream of one day returning to Everest to climb to its summit, her life suddenly felt as if it had fresh purpose.

  Glenn had recovered well enough from a few days in hospital in Nepal, then a week in hospital in Brisbane, to return home, and he certainly seemed amenable to returning to the Himalaya one day. For him, that trek towards Everest Base Camp had been a great one, despite having to abort the last part, and a good experience for them to share, as well as an excellent trip to possibly add to the Kokoda one he would be offering through the company he was planning to set up, Adventure Professionals.

  ‘I thought it would be a great trek to do again,’ he says. ‘Nepal, we’d found, was an amazing country, with incredible cultural diversity. There was so much to see and do. And on the trek, it was amazing to be able to walk through all those villages with all these great views of Mount Everest and the surrounding peaks. I thought it was fabulous and, while it was embarrassing to have this ten-year-old bouncing around, and me not able to make it, it only added to the trip to see what an impact it was having on Alyssa.’

  Therese and the children had, in the meantime, returned to Toowoomba, and the family was back together again. Therese was pleased to welcome Alyssa back in one piece, was thrilled she’d had such a good time, and relieved both she and Glenn were home safely. ‘I didn’t mind so much her going to Everest Base Camp because she’d done Kokoda, and I felt Kokoda was worse in many ways. It just felt like a wilder place and so many more things feel as if they can go wrong.

  ‘Everest was a long way, and I knew she was going to be away for three weeks, which is a long time. But I was still more comfortable with it as she’d had a little bit of experience and there were plenty of ways to get her out if there was any trouble. When I looked at her photos, I felt reassured. Every photo of her in Nepal, she had a big smile on her face.’

  There was lots of interest in Alyssa’s trip from her friends at school and she gave a couple of presentations on Everest, Nepal and the trek to Base Camp to different classes. There were more calls from the media too, and she was again interviewed about her latest adventure. Everyone asked her what she was planning to do next. She just shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

  But every evening she was back at the gym, training for whatever would come up next, and then on the internet at home, looking to work out exactly what that should be. Therese was hoping her daughter might be more content at home after having had such an adventurous few years, and told her to concentrate on school. She didn’t really have too much time to grow restless, in any case. Glenn was working harder and harder for the new adventure business he’d bought into in Brisbane with the fellow ex-soldier, setting up Everest Base Camp treks now as well as the K
okoda trips.

  In April 2008, he and Alyssa returned to Nepal with the aim of further checking out the Base Camp trek, and hopefully making it all the way. This trip ran a great deal more smoothly and, this time, as the pair trudged out of Namche, Everest immediately appeared on the horizon. Alyssa thrilled at the sight all over again. She knew its curves, the shape of its peak so well, it all felt terribly familiar. It seemed to add a spring to her step. The next village was Tengboche, high on a knife-edged ridge with fabulous views again. Alyssa and Glenn stayed overnight, aware that they still needed to acclimatise to the 4400-metre height. Alyssa didn’t sleep well, however; she was too excited about the trek and reaching Everest Base Camp.

  The next day, the pair finally reached Gorak Shep, at 5200 metres, the last village before the camp. They slept there another night and then walked straight into the camp. It took just two hours. Alyssa looked at the grey, stony patch of land, dotted with bright yellow tents, with real awe. One day, she felt, she was going to be here, ready to actually climb Everest as she’d vowed. She knew it. She just hoped it wouldn’t be too long to wait.

  She and her dad wandered around the camp. In truth, there was not a lot to see: the tents, a few figures washing pans, strings of fluttering prayer flags. Everyone seemed to be out, either practising on slopes nearby or training for the big climb up Everest itself. But it was enough to fire Alyssa’s imagination. She was absolutely certain she would return.

  Back home again, and Glenn was finding it increasingly difficult to run things from Toowoomba. In the end, he and Therese agreed to move the family to Brisbane.

  Alyssa wasn’t used to city life, missed the hills she’d grown up around, and found it hard to adapt to the change. She transferred to a Brisbane high school, the girls’ school Corpus Christie College at Nundah, later to become Mary McKillop College. But she was struggling.

  ‘I didn’t enjoy that school at all, and I never felt as though I fitted in,’ she says. ‘I think I just wasn’t interested in a lot of the things most kids were interested in. I went to school for the sake of going to school, just to learn, whereas most of the other people there went to socialise, which is a side I never enjoyed. Also, I wasn’t really sure I wanted to go to an all-girls school any more.’

  Alyssa ended up moving to Kelvin Grove State College, where the atmosphere was a little more relaxed. She still didn’t exactly enjoy it, but disliked it a bit less. She distracted herself by attending the gym and training every spare moment she had.

  Never a chatty kid, over the next few months she became even quieter and more withdrawn. All her family noticed it, but they just assumed it was a stage she was going through. One day, Glenn drew her aside and asked her what was really wrong. She finally told him: she was being bullied again at school. The other kids saw her as the odd one out, and they were being merciless. She was once more being targeted on social media, being picked on and derided.

  ‘It turned out she was being ostracised because she didn’t play an instrument or do ballet,’ says Glenn. ‘She was different from the rest. She boxed and worked out and was having all these adventures that got her publicity, and the others didn’t like that so much. It meant she was copping a lot of flak. Parents would see a story about her in the newspaper and they’d say to their kid, Look what’s she’s doing, and I can’t even get you to clean your room! Even on radio, someone would interview her and joke that their child just sat on the couch all day. It was meant in good humour, but it built up a bit of resentment among some other kids. Also, she’s pretty quiet, and doesn’t really defend herself, which only encourages them. But it was starting to affect her.

  ‘Bullying, particularly on social media, is pretty hard to counter and so I talked to her about how she could not let it bother her. As a twelve-year-old, she couldn’t control other people, but she could control her reaction to them. I told her it was a bit sad if she was going to let other people stop her doing things she liked doing because it made them uncomfortable. I tried to explain to her that in life, people often judge you by their own limitations, and that teenagers, particularly teenage girls, sort of sit in a safety bubble. They like to be the same as everyone else and any kids who come outside that bubble and are different, they’ll just try to pull them back in to make themselves feel comfortable.’

  Alyssa listened quietly and nodded. She made a mental note to herself to start toughening up. She couldn’t let things like this get in the way of her dreams. ‘There was a lot of drama in high school and gossip and all that kind of thing, and I just wasn’t interested in any of it,’ she says. ‘I didn’t really see the point. So I found it difficult to get involved. I suppose I was a bit different and obviously I’d travelled to third world countries and seen certain things that a lot of them hadn’t, so I guess they had a different perspective on things. But I’d been having a rough time at school, and I was getting a bit negative and unhappy. Dad felt that wasn’t like me, so I decided I needed to change my attitude.

  ‘I always felt, even from a young age, that no matter how small you are, what age or what gender, you can accomplish anything, and those who put you down are just too scared to go for their own dreams. I tried very much to remember that.’

  To cheer her up, Glenn suggested the pair go on another adventure. An old soldier mate of his, Kyle Williams, who’d figured out the logistics for the Townsville to Brisbane charity run all those years ago, had suggested summitting the ten highest peaks in Australia in one trip, a circuit he dubbed ‘The Aussie 10’. It could prove a great adventure trek, he said. Glenn was immediately interested. Of course, they’d be nothing like the Himalayan peaks, with the highest being Kosciuszko at just 2228 metres, merely a pebble or two over a quarter of Everest’s height. But they do offer spectacular alpine trekking and they’re all within the Kosciuszko National Park in NSW’s Snowy Mountains, part of the same Great Dividing Range that gives Toowoomba its curves. Since all the peaks, including Mount Townsend at 2209 metres, Mount Twynam at 2195 metres and Rams Head at 2190 metres, are within 12 km of each other as the crow flies, the whole trip with its 50 km hike would only take a few days, but it would be tough.

  Alyssa brightened immediately and trained with even more vigour. Glenn suggested they keep this trip quiet, with no press, to try to avoid giving the bullies any more fodder.

  A few weeks later, the pair drive down to the Charlotte Pass in the heart of the NSW Snowy Mountains, and meet up with Williams as their guide, as well as a couple more friends who’ve decided they’d like to come along. It really seems this could be another trip for the schedule of the adventure business: a challenging trek on Australia’s most spectacular mountain range, with the country’s only mainland glacial lakes as a stunning backdrop.

  Alyssa celebrated her twelfth birthday in November 2009, just before they set off, and is looking forward to such an impromptu, spontaneous getaway. She didn’t even have time to research it beforehand but, being local, it is pretty easy to arrange and she’s excited at the thought of another adventure. There’s a great deal of snow and ice around. She’s seen snow on the Everest Base Camp trek, but she’s never experienced walking through it. At each step, she sinks deeper and deeper into the snow and, since she is still quite small, the others joke that they might soon lose her completely. And they almost do. At one stage they’re standing on the side of a freezing cold river, working out the best way to get across, when the ice beneath Alyssa’s feet gives way and she slips in. She’s hauled out, soaked to the skin and shivering from the freezing water, but takes it in good heart, and laughs along with the others. There’s nothing for it then but to take off her sodden tracksuit pants, knowing there’s no chance of them drying in the cold, and trek in her compression shorts, raising the eyebrows of other groups who pass them, wondering why on earth such a young girl is out on such a chilly day in so few clothes.

  At first her legs feel deathly cold but eventually they go pleasantly numb, and from that point on she feels much happier. Besides, th
ere’s an old mountain-climbing expression that you need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. She decides this experience is only helping prepare her for all the discomfort to come in later years, and the thought cheers her immensely. Several hours later, she walks the winding track up Mount Kosciuszko as her seventh peak. By now, she is really feeling it. The climb is steep and much harder than she thought it would be.

  But finally, she reaches the top – the highest point in Australia. She looks around with a feeling of huge satisfaction. She feels proud to have made it with such comparative ease and knows that, despite the problems she’s been facing, she hasn’t lost her love and passion for adventure.

  The next three peaks are comparatively easy, and Alyssa is cheered by the experience. She starts feeling positive again about her life, and being among mountains has helped put everything back into perspective. Somehow, she always finds the experience of height conducive to clearer thinking, and trudging upwards ever life-affirming. Tackling the Aussie 10, and succeeding, has now put her back on track and heading in a positive direction. She feels happy and excited all over again about what she can achieve in the future, as well as being proud of her past achievements. This time, she hasn’t experienced a new culture, but is returning a new person.

  On the way back, she realises that, in climbing Kosciuszko, she’s ticked off one of the famed Seven Summits, the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. She starts daydreaming about tackling the other six, including Everest. It’s starting to feel more and more possible.

  CHAPTER 10

  Everest’s First Australians: