Selwyn Times: September 15, 2021
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<strong>Selwyn</strong> <strong>Times</strong> Wednesday <strong>September</strong> <strong>15</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />
8<br />
OUR PEOPLE – GAVIN KING<br />
Farmer’s choice of either mountain<br />
As a student at Darfield<br />
High School and young<br />
mountain climber,<br />
Gavin King decided<br />
he would either<br />
conquer Mt Everest<br />
or strive towards farm<br />
ownership. He chose<br />
the latter. The 66-yearold<br />
from Glenroy talks<br />
to Susan Sandys<br />
Tell me about your mountain<br />
climbing years<br />
When I was at Darfield High<br />
School I became very interested<br />
in mountaineering from the age<br />
of 14. I would get my pack, load<br />
it up with my climbing gear,<br />
two or three changes of clothes,<br />
a little bit of food. I didn’t have<br />
much money, I would hitch<br />
down from our family farm<br />
at Hororata to Mt Cook. You<br />
wouldn’t let your kids do it<br />
today. I would just find my own<br />
way, then I would team up with<br />
my friends when I got down<br />
there. My father used to take me<br />
shooting and to do a little bit<br />
of tramping. I was keen to do<br />
mountaineering because I liked<br />
the snow and the ice. I climbed<br />
until I was 16 and then I got into<br />
working on farms. I wanted to<br />
concentrate on that.<br />
EMPIRE: Gavin King started small but has built up a family farming enterprise.<br />
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN<br />
What mountains did you<br />
climb?<br />
I climbed the 10,000 footers in<br />
the Mt Cook area. I climbed the<br />
Minarets twin peaks, Mt Elie de<br />
Beaumont and Malte Brun, they<br />
are over 10,000 feet. I went over<br />
the cheval ridge on Malte Brun,<br />
that is a famous part of climbing<br />
in Mt Cook National Park. The<br />
rock ridge comes to a point, and<br />
you just sit on your bum and<br />
have a leg each side. It looks like<br />
it’s a 3000 or 4000 foot drop<br />
below you.<br />
Who did you go climbing<br />
with?<br />
My friend David Waghorn,<br />
also from Darfield High School.<br />
He was in the year above me and<br />
we were both in the first XV. He<br />
and I were interested in climbing<br />
and then we got to know other<br />
climbers, Fraser Ford and Kevin<br />
Carroll. They both died in<br />
climbing accidents.<br />
How terrible to lose your<br />
friends at such a young age.<br />
What happened?<br />
Fraser Ford, he was 17. He was<br />
incredibly unlucky. He died on<br />
Mt Cook, a big rock hit him near<br />
the top of Summit Rocks and he<br />
was killed. I was <strong>15</strong> at the time.<br />
I had come back up here to help<br />
cart hay and do a few things and<br />
then Fraser died.<br />
Kevin used to come up to the<br />
farm and stay on the weekends<br />
occasionally. He was about two<br />
or three years older than me.<br />
When he was 21 he died on Mt<br />
Fitz Roy in Patagonia, South<br />
America. They call it the needle<br />
in the sky. Kevin was one of<br />
two Kiwis who set out from the<br />
glacier with two Americans, after<br />
four days they hadn’t reached the<br />
top. Kevin was 21, so it’s going<br />
back a long time. Kevin and one<br />
of the Americans kept going, the<br />
other two went back down to<br />
camp.<br />
Kevin and the American were<br />
last seen alive just below the<br />
summit disappearing into the<br />
cloud, the weather changed very<br />
quickly. They never came back<br />
to camp so after a couple of days<br />
the other guys went back. They<br />
found Kevin and his friend both<br />
dead on the glacier wrapped<br />
up in climbing ropes. They had<br />
fallen a long way, spinning and<br />
the rope winding them up. They<br />
could only take one body back<br />
down to the camp at a time, and<br />
they put Kevin in a crevasse so<br />
the condors wouldn’t eat him.<br />
When they went back to get<br />
Kevin the crevasse had closed up<br />
they couldn’t get him out.<br />
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