Unsung Heroes

GABBY KANIZAY

Meet the youngest Australian ever to successfully summit Mount Everest. (She took her mum.)

How old were you when you decided climbing Everest would be a good idea?

Fourteen. We spent a lot of time speaking with climbers, and eventually Sherpa overseas, about what we would need to do to train up to do it safely, to be qualified to be on the mountain. And to be honest there were mixed responses, but we just made a massive case of doing all of the training and preparation.

What sort of training?

In the climbing gym and doing altitude training, and then we had expeditions over to Nepal where we would progressively increase our altitude and put the alpine skills into practice.

I don’t actually remember sitting down with mum and dad and deciding whether this was a good idea or a bad idea. It was just an awesome idea.

What was the hardest part?

It was very physically demanding: long, hard days of walking and climbing for ages and then resting up with a [high-altitude] headache, which was difficult, but I enjoyed the challenge of it. I wanted it to be hard. Waking up in the morning and knowing I had to climb for hours and hours, not feeling particularly fuelled, I guess those things add up. But the summit day, and on the subsequent day that I summitted Lhotse (8516m), I was so full of adrenaline that I don’t look back on it as a hard experience.

What is climbing the world’s highest mountain like moment-to-moment?

The first day you leave Base Camp to get up to Camp 1 and climb through the Khumbu ice fall, which was definitely my favourite day. There are some nearly vertical faces there that you have to get up—although never more than maybe 3-4 metres at a time. And then you have ladder crossings that are horizontal in the ice col, and then once you’re out and in the Western Cwm, which is where both Camp 1 and Camp 2 are, it is a fairly shallow gradient. It doesn’t feel like climbing; essentially, it’s more like glacial travel across a snowy plateau, where you’re navigating crevasses. The last glacier crevasse on the mountain requires some more intricate manoeuvres, and then you hit the Lhotse face, which is fairly steep. We were lucky in that there wasn’t too much blue ice, which is where you really have to kick in your crampons, and we had quite decent snowfall the night before we went up the Lhotse face. It’s all fixed lines the entire way up, and that simplifies the climbing.

What do you love about climbing?

To be a part of that environment is so overwhelming. To be in the presence of the mountains takes my breath away every time. You feel small, but not in a sense that you probably shouldn’t be here—I feel small in the sense that I don’t need to feel bigger than the mountain. I’m just happy to be on the mountain.

You climbed alongside your mum. Was she an experienced climber?

No! Mum got into it because I wanted to.

Wow. That’s a good mum.

She’s the best mum! In my mind she’s the hero of the story. She was always like, “Oh, it’ll never happen!” And then we were booking flights and Mum was like, oh what have I gotten myself into? It wasn't her dream, it was always mine.

Is it right that the summit of Everest is about the size of a car?

That’s actually pretty accurate.

We measure everything by the size of cars. What is it like to stand at the top?

Cold! But so spectacular. You walk up the last few steps to the summit and then you see the mountain drop away on the other side, the side that we didn’t climb up. We were lucky that ours was quite a quiet day, and so we got to hang out up there for maybe an hour and watch the sunrise.

What’s it like to be in the ‘death zone’, that altitude where life is unsustainable? Can you feel your energy sapping away?

Yes, especially with the oxygen mask off. You decline a noticeable amount in a short period. Mum and I spent an extended period just below the death zone in Camp 4, because I summitted Everest and then returned to stay at Camp 4, and then summitted Lhotse. At that altitude you can see just the lack of energy in everyone, even the Sherpa, who are always so sprightly, because this is what they do. People really aren’t supposed to hang out up there.

What’s next for you?

Well, last week I ran my first ultramarathon. My knees are still feeling it! And I’m doing a commerce degree at uni.

Is a commerce degree the opposite of mountaineering?

It really is! But I’d love to move into more rock climbing and ice climbing in the next few years and become more technical.