First Friday was attended by 38 members and visitors who enjoyed a fascinating presentation by Steve and Mara Klemich on the exploits of their husband-and-wife mountaineering team. The presentation opened with a video of Steve’s solo ascent of the Jungfrau in the Eiger region. Steve and Mara then discussed climbing safety, the evolution of climbing equipment, and the importance of recognising when conditions dictate that it is time to turn back.

A particularly compelling section compared their climb of Mt Lobuche in the Everest region during the 1996 Everest disaster. Having identified a dangerous weather front approaching both Mt Lobuche and Mt Everest, Steve and Mara made the difficult decision to turn back just 100 metres short of the summit. They returned safely to base camp while eight climbers on Everest who had not turned back tragically lost their lives in the same storm. The disaster later became the subject of Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air and the subsequent film adaptations.

We were further inspired by photographs of Mara traversing sheer rock faces high above Swiss valleys on Via Ferrata routes, as well as tackling challenging climbs closer to home in the Blue Mountains. The presentation concluded with an extraordinary story from Mount Aspiring in New Zealand. On the night before a climb with lead climber Jamie, Steve dreamt that Jamie’s ice axe would break during the ascent. After sharing the dream, Jamie took the unusual precaution of ensuring both ice axes were always firmly embedded in the ice before making a move. During the climb, one of Jamie’s ice axes did in fact snap in half. Had neither axis been securely placed at that moment, the consequences for both climbers could have been catastrophic.

The above photo was taken after Jamie had safely returned to base camp with the broken ice axe.

– Greg Dunstan