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The Team
Kyajo Ri, summit team
Armando Corvini - Expedition Leader and local Canberra mountaineer. 40 years mountaineering experience in Europe, New Zealand, and Nepal, including a first ascents in the Dolomites and in New Zealand
Graham Franklin-Browne - Deputy Leader - local Canberra climber, 2 previous expeditions to Nepal including a successful ascent of Mera Peak in 2000. Has climbed on granite and sandstone throughout Australia
graham.franklin-browne@abs.gov.au
Cheryl Woods - local rock climber, major achievements on rock include a 2-day aid climb of Australia's largest big wall "Ozymandias"
Fil Giles - local rock and ice climber, also climbed in Canada and NZ
Adam Lydiard - local Canberra rock climber
Sonam Sherpa - Fully qualified trekking and mountaineering guide, registered with the ministry of tourism and the NMA (Nepalese Mountaineering Association). Many ascents of Island Peak and Mera Peak and other Himalayan Peaks.
Canberra team to attempt Himalayan peak - The Canberra Times
By Michelle Doherty. September 19 2005
A group of hardy Canberrans is planning on being the first Australian expedition to scale a Himalayan peak recently opened to climbers but proving frustratingly difficult to conquer.
One of the climbers, Cheryl Woods, a computer consultant from Waramanga, if successful will also become the first woman in the world to reach the summit of Kyajo Ri, a 6186m-high peak south-west of Mount Everest in Nepal.
``It's sort of been a lifelong ambition to be the best at something or first at something. Sort of, `Oh yeah, cool, I'm in the record books','' she said, with a laugh.
Led by long-time mountain climber and outdoor instructor Armando Corvini, of Cook, the other expedition members are Queanbeyan lawyer Phil Giles and public servants Graham Franklin-Browne (Weston) and Adam Lyddiard (Macgregor).
The mountain was opened for climbing in 2003 and so far only a British-French team has made it to the top. There is a 60m-abseil down to the glacier as well as depleted oxygen, stress, and the cold to contend with but the climbers can't wait, planning to reach the summit in mid-October after 10 days of climbing from a base camp.
They leave Australia on October 2. They want to scale the mountain, yes, because it is there, but also because the challenge puts life back home into perspective. `
`You can be real,'' Ms Woods said. ``You get rid of the crap of western life. It's back to basics.''
Mr Giles said: ``Life gets very simple. It's like, `Let go of that rope and you're dead'. It's simple.''
Mr Franklin-Browne said he couldn't face anything worse than having his house destroyed in the January 2003 bushfires. ``Mountains don't hold a lot of fear for me,'' he said.
Kyajo Ri is also very beautiful. ``It's a classically shaped mountain, like a pyramid,'' Mr Giles said.
``It's spiritual,'' Mr Lyddiard said.
The group has been training with indoor and outdoor climbing as well as in the gym.
Mr Lyddiard has also been filling a pack with textbooks and going up and down Mount Ainslie, while Mr Franklin-Browne uses 10 litre packs of water to weigh himself down.
Mr Corvini lost his fingers to frostbite on a climbing trip in 1994 but that has not stopped him making 11 trips to the Himalayas since 1998.
He said on a scale of one to six of difficulty, Kyajo Ri was a four.
``But the conditions may have changed since that assessment was made and it could be more dangerous,'' he said.
The summit is small; not even big enough for all of the climbers to be on it at the same time. Whoever is the most fit and healthy at the time, will have the honour of getting there first.
While Ms Wood wants to celebrate in the traditional way by planting an Australian flag on the summit, Mr Lyddiard reckons he'll light up ``a big Cuban Havana''.
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