Third attempt on Everest

Press, 8 December 1988, Page 36

Third attempt on Everest

NZPA Sydney The New Zealand adventurer and mountaineer, Peter Hillary, will make his third attempt on Mount Everest next April.

Mr Hillary, aged 33, and an Australian climber, Roddie MacKenzie, will join a 12member Anglo-American expedition which aims to make a “quick” ascent up the same route Hillary’s father, Sir Edmund, climbed in 1953 to become one of the first two

people to reach the summit.

The climb will cost Hillary and MacKenzie about sAust2s,ooo ($33,230), some of which will come from sponsorship. “I spend a lot of time organising sponsorships. We’re not looking for an altruistic person to put the money in our hands, we try to make the package as commercial as possible so that whoever provides equipment or cash gets a good return in terms of promotion and P.R.,” Hil-

lary told NZPA from Melbourne.

Bad weather foiled Hillary’s last two attempts but he believes favourable weather in April along with the high technical standard of the expedition should ensure a high chance of success.

“Really why I’m going back is that last year I was part of a team of four that spent four months trying to climb the mountain in extremely bad weather. I guess the one

consolation was that while we were there 150 others were trying to climb Everest and none of them got up,” Hillary has lived in Melbourne for almost two years pursuing a life of climbing, trekking, ski-ing, adventuring and photojournalism.

Earlier this year he and a former Auckland televison personality, Rhys Jones, co-hosted a Channel Seven adventure programme called “Escape.”