Summit Reached In the Footsteps of Hillary

“One thing I’ve learned is that once I start I’ll keep going, even if it’s really hard. I’m pretty slow but I’ll get there. I didn’t want to be that one person in the team to stop everyone or turn back. So I had to keep going.”

The Trust’s Inspiring Explorers Expeditions™ enable young people to grow and develop an explorer mindset. On this expedition Sarah, Jaylee, and A’aifou were thrilled to be mentored and guided by legendary New Zealand mountaineer Lydia Bradey ONZM. Lydia was the first woman in the world to climb Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen in 1988. She has gone on to summit Everest six times, and has guided ascents of Everest more that any other woman in the world.

One of Lydia’s personal missions is to inspire young people to open their eyes to big nature. “To enrichen your life, life needs to be embraced in some way. I have a passion about is stepping out of your comfort zone, not necessarily doing big sporting things, or climbing Mount Everest. It’s about making yourself more intelligent, forging new connections in your mind, and being exposed to differences.

It is important for me to share my journey. I was always bad at sports, I was teased about how I walked. Everything physical was quite a challenge and scary. So for me to work in the physical world of guiding has been hard and really scary. It was a long journey and it never came easy. I tell them ‘I’ve been there, I know it’s not easy, but that’s what makes life good’.

My approach is caring and supportive and encouraging. Awareness comes from them, it doesn’t come from me, and I have seen this growth from the whole team. In particular, I’m really proud of Sarah embracing moving over rough terrain, and she owns it now. It’s so inspiring, I get a little bit emotional.

It has been a total honour to be able to work with them. When you see this growth and potential for opening doors you don’t want to say goodbye to them. So the last day is going to be hard because I want to say, ‘let’s go have another adventure somewhere else’,” says Lydia.

Sarah said, “Lydia was really cool. She was really understanding. She let me go at my own pace. She helped me carry my bag. She was there for me, gave me words of encouragement, and she had really good conversation.”

In preparation for climbing Mt Ollivier, the Inspiring Explorers™ have undertaken fitness training sessions with New Zealand rugby league legend Ruben Wiki at his Wiki Works Gym in Ōtara, South Auckland. They also learned some essential mountain skills, during a training weekend at Mount Ruapehu, including the basics of what to wear in the outdoors, how to use harnesses and fixed lines, how to walk with crampons, and carry out self-arrests.

“I started training for this almost a year ago. Training with Reuben Wiki was pretty cool, knowing that he used to go to our school too. My team really encouraged me to be there every training session even though sometimes I didn’t really want to. They were fun,” said Sarah. By challenging themselves and embracing the unknown, just as Sir Edmund Hillary did before them, these Inspiring Explorers™ have developed skills that will influence their life’s path.

“I think it’s important to step out of our comfort zone because we need to get used to the wider world, not just our own community such as South Auckland. We need to spread our wings, and why not? It’s an amazing experience,” says Jaylee.