Two Great Walks in 24 hours

On the 11th of January, 10 years ago Sir Edmund Hillary passed away and at the time he said he didn’t want people building monuments, rather he wanted them to continue his work in the Solukhumbu/ Everest region of Nepal.

Well that is what we did.

Over the last 10 years we have organised, and pushed ourselves to the limit, to complete a number of challenges in order to raise money for the Himalayan Trust. All have been located in the NZ mountains and forests that he loved, with a focus on tramping/ climbing something significant within 24 hours e.g. Climbing the three highest peaks in the North Island; Summiting Mt Cook/ Aoraki.

In total we have raise circa $45K for the Himalayan Trust.

So as to commemorate not only the 10 year anniversary of his passing, but also the 65th anniversary of the first ascent of Mt Everest (29th May 1953), we have set ourselves a new challenge.

On the last weekend of February this year we are going to walk both the Routeburn* and Caples* tracks in the Milford National park in 24 hours – normally a 5+ day hike. Something serious to respectfully befit the occasion and man!

Our goal, to take our $45K already raised and increase it to $65K.

The reason, to celebrate the amazing ascent of 65 years ago which also importantly signified the start of all Sir Ed’s work in the Solukhumbu region - hospitals, medical clinics, schools, airfields, reforestation, water, etc. All life changing initiatives for the local people.

Two of us Mark Macky and Ken Brophy were lucky enough to go to Nepal last year, to not only hike in the Khumbu but to engage with the work being done by the trust – it is amazing! Since the deadly earthquake of 2015 your generous support of our events and many other initiatives will have helped rebuilt 150 classrooms at 36 schools, including some of the first schools built by Sir Ed.

For anyone who missed it this article may be of interest in detailed the work of Sir Ed and his beloved Himalayan Trust - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11962671

The team for the challenge this time round will be made up of some returning veterans (Joe and Ken Brophy, Simon Curran, Mark Macky, Todd Male, Elton Sturmfels, Grae Switzer and David Toomey) as well as some new suckers for punishment (Gary Diprose, Mariota Smutz and Keki Wilson).

As just to show we aren’t stopping there - next year would have been Sir Ed’s 100th birthday so by the end of 2019 we want to get the total to $100K through us doing another event but maybe there are others who want to also do something to contribute….more on that post the end of February, but rest assured there will be more!

* Note - the Routeburn is a Great Walk, the Caples has been nominated for this status.