The Girl Who Climbed Everest

by Sue Williams

  ‘I was pleased how I went with the altitude as well. I definitely felt it, but then my body did get a bit more used to it as we went along. And that made me even more hopeful about climbing Everest someday soon.’

  Again, there was a lot of media attention on her after reaching the top of Kilimanjaro by one of its most challenging routes and raising over $70 000 for Kids Helpline, but at every opportunity she mentioned her end goal. ‘I’m going to climb Everest,’ she declared to the world. ‘I like to test myself against nature and that will be the toughest test of all.’

  Usually, after arriving home from a trip, she would settle in and take her time, letting her heart decide where in the world she’d be off to explore next. But this time she knew there was no more thinking to be done: it was time for the big one. ‘I enjoyed the trips I had done, but there was something about aiming even bigger that attracted me to this mountain,’ she says. ‘Once that dream began, I knew this was my next trip. No question about it.’

  It was then that a friend discovered that if she summitted Everest before the age of eighteen, Alyssa would be the youngest non-Sherpa female in the world ever to reach the top. She’d have smashed another world record, along with her Kokoda one.

  The idea of another record was appealing, but Alyssa refused to let that be her main motivation. ‘It’s not about records, that doesn’t concern me too much,’ she says. ‘It’s about dreaming big, challenging myself and going for something. Yes, if I achieve my dream I will be the youngest non-Sherpa female and the youngest Australian ever to summit Everest but, for me, it’s about my passion for climbing, not the record.’

  If she stood any chance of success, however, she knew she was going to have to prepare carefully for the climb. Before she even set foot on Everest, she’d have to climb other high peaks to hone her skills and improve her capacity to work at altitude, and to learn more about rock and ice climbing. And she didn’t want to allow anything, or anyone, to stand in her way. Everything on her personal timetable was now drawn up to focus on training hard enough to one day tackle Everest.

  One of her major obstacles, she believed, was school. So when she returned from Kilimanjaro she didn’t return to the classroom. Instead, she started distance education. It meant she’d be able to do her lessons in her own time over the internet, just with conference calls and occasional trips to Brisbane, which she could fit in around her training and in the periods she wouldn’t be away trekking or climbing.

  Therese wasn’t keen on Alyssa leaving school so young. ‘I would have preferred her to have stayed at school, she knows that! You worry, What if she got an injury and couldn’t do everything she wanted to do, and then, without a good education, was unable to achieve in other areas? You don’t want your kids to miss out on anything, and we all go through those years where we hate high school. I thought it’d be better for her to finish school, but she was sure this was what she wanted.

  ‘Also, I know distance education is hard to do on your own. You have to be really motivated to do the work in your own time, and set deadlines. Mind you, if anyone can do it, Alyssa can. She’s good at setting herself a task and doing it. She’s never had a problem with that. It’s a lonely mission she’s on. There won’t be many people on that mountain . . .’

  But Alyssa’s life still wasn’t without its problems. Glenn and Therese had separated again, and Glenn moved out to a house nearby. The children were each asked where they wanted to live, and Brooklyn, now sixteen, Christian, seven, and Samantha, four, opted to stay with their mother. Alyssa went to live with Glenn, and agreed to stay with her mum whenever he went away. The two youngest would come to stay at their father’s every second week or when their mum, now working as an emergency nurse and studying pharmacy, was working shifts. Brooklyn, interested in studying photography and beauty therapy, would visit, and Glenn went to see her, but she said she didn’t want to stay.

  ‘It was sad,’ Glenn’s sister Tanya says. ‘Glenn was doing a lot of work building his brand and business and was away a lot, and he wanted to give the family everything he could. But at the same time, it was hard for Therese. There was a lot of pressure on her, especially with Christian, and she’s really smart and really determined and driven as well. And Alyssa and Glenn had always had a massive connection from when she was very tiny, so she felt that too.’

  The break-up of the family was distressing for Alyssa, but she tried hard not to let it affect her. She’d always been close to Christian and Samantha, and missed them being around, although she still spent a lot of time with them when they did come to stay. Samantha was always happy to see her and play with her, and she used the time with Christian to build even stronger bonds. He adored her but he could be difficult, and his autism meant he could suddenly get terribly upset for no discernible reason. Alyssa always made an extra effort to be patient and attentive. That was often tested; she had to watch him continually to make sure he didn’t run off, or hurt himself. But the pair always had a lot of fun together. ‘We get on really well,’ she says. ‘We both love hanging out together. And however hard it is for the rest of us, you have to remember that it’s much, much harder for Christian. Looking at how he copes with some of life’s difficulties, I’m filled with admiration for him. I think he has really taught me a lot, and helped me become a better person.’

  As for the break-up of the family, she’s philosophical. ‘It is hard but people have to decide what’s best for them,’ she says. ‘I try not to let it get to me. Brooklyn and I were old enough to decide what we preferred to do, and we all mix based on schedules. Really, it works better with the climbing if I’m with Dad. It’s easy access to training and Dad and I work a lot of it together. I still spend a lot of time with Dad, and see loads of Christian and Sammy, and I do catch up with Mum, so I’m happy that’s worked out. Having my climbing, and all the training and planning that goes into it, is a great way to direct my energy into something positive.’

  Glenn struggled, however. ‘To be brutally honest, it’s probably the worst thing I’ve ever been through,’ he says. ‘We’d grown apart over the past five to six years and we’d separated a couple of times. But it doesn’t get any easier. I look back at me and Therese and think, Wow! We didn’t really know each other. Therese’s not interested in the gym and adventure travel; she’s very clever and loves to study and reads textbooks and gets a lot of pleasure out of them. And, well, I would imagine I can be pretty hard to live with.

  ‘I get something into my head and just go for it – Alyssa’s very, very similar to me there.’

  With Alyssa’s course now set, she nominated 2014 as the year she’d make her attempt on Everest, when she’d be seventeen.

  She knew the climb and the other peaks in the run-up would be an expensive undertaking, so she hoped she’d be able to attract some sponsorship to help with the costs. In January 2012, just after her fifteenth birthday, she sent out a press release through Glenn’s Adventure Professionals. ‘I love adventure and testing myself to my limits, so I’ve signed up to attempt the summit in 2014,’ she wrote. ‘I’m not that fussed about records, or holding the title of being the youngest person to achieve something. I just love to climb mountains and test myself. It’s when I’m out against nature that I seem to have the most fun.’

  Website and graphic designer Daniel Borg, who’d been on one of Glenn’s 2009 Kokoda treks and had since started working with him on his website, met Alyssa at Glenn’s launch of Adventure Professionals. He heard about her Everest quest, and contacted Glenn, offering to sponsor her through his company, the multimedia studio psyborg. He thought her obvious determination to make things happen, as well as her youth, would make her a great ambassador for his brand.

  ‘I had a lot of confidence and trust in Glenn after having been to Kokoda with him,’ says Borg. ‘so I’d heard about Alyssa’s adventures and I thought I’d like to support her, even if nothing ended up happening. I could see how confident and goal-oriented she was, and how she’d taken on
her dad’s belief system that you can do anything if you work hard enough, and believe. I thought that kind of mental strength worked well with my company’s slogan, “Part Mind, Part Machine”. And she’s young and cool, and our branding just fits well together.’

  He became Alyssa’s first sponsor and also helped her set up her own website, and design business cards, a logo and a letterhead. She was thrilled. ‘It feels, with psyborg’s help, my trip is really taking off,’ she says. ‘To have someone like that come on board and believe in my dream . . . I couldn’t thank him enough.’

  The fresh wave of media interest also brought other unexpected attention. She started getting messages of support, and she printed some of them out, thrilled that she was having an impact, however small. ‘Alyssa, you are an inspiration to other young kids,’ one read. ‘There should be more of you out exploring the outdoors. It makes me proud . . . Good luck on your summit attempt.’

  With her website up and running, she started blogging about her life and her plans for Everest. She’d always loved writing in her diary, and while it was strange to think of other people reading about her life, she enjoyed putting her thoughts down on paper. A voracious reader, particularly of books about anyone doing anything heroic or adventurous, she also loved writing about what she’d learnt from them. And then she set out a preparation schedule that included another Kokoda trek, rock and ice climbing in New Zealand around its highest mountain, Mount Cook, the mountain Island Peak or Cho Oyu in Nepal and then, finally, Mount Aconcagua in the Andes in Argentina, another one of the Seven Summits. By then, she reasoned, she should be ready.

  ‘I’m a big believer in daring to dream and then doing everything physically and mentally possible to achieve those dreams,’ she says. ‘You only live once, right? I know what I’ve signed up for, and it’s totally on my head. I’m so excited that I want to get up each day and push myself.’

  Alyssa now went to Glenn’s gym three, sometimes four times a day to train. She also started doing CrossFit, the strength and conditioning program that aims to improve muscular strength, cardio-respiratory endurance and flexibility, and is practised by many military units, police squads and professional athletes worldwide. It’s based around Workouts of the Day, or WODs, posted on the founding company’s website, to increase functional fitness – training the body to be able to carry out real-life activities in real-life positions, not just lifting weights on machines that set up perfect posture first.

  For Alyssa, a typical daily workout included standing-start jumps onto a raised platform, push-ups, kettle bells – the bell-shaped weights that are swung around the body – rowing on a machine, pull-ups and skipping. She augmented that with more running, boxing and walking with either a heavy pack on her back, or strapped into a harness dragging a tyre around behind her. Competitive boxing she opted to give up in order to concentrate on her overall mountain fitness.

  ‘CrossFit will probably be the best thing I can do for my climbing,’ she says. ‘It doesn’t just give me muscles and strength, it also trains my body how to properly use that strength, and gives me a lot more endurance. Rather than just lifting weights, it involves every movement I’ll need to be strong enough to pull myself up a mountain.’

  Glenn helped her draw up her training schedules, and very soon she became used to the feeling of soreness she woke up with every day. She started welcoming it as a sign she’d been working hard, and making progress. He also helped her time herself running 5 km, and then 7 km, so she’d be able to judge how quickly she’d be able to improve on her personal bests.

  She made her workouts even harder with an elevation training mask, which looks just like an old-fashioned gas mask, to restrict her breathing. It has three different interchangeable nose pieces with which you can control the flow of air, to mimic the difficulty of breathing at high altitude. She started using it daily, sometimes when doing kettle bells or boxing, and sometimes when she ran, particularly on the treadmill. She hoped it would condition her lungs by creating pulmonary resistance, and strengthen the diaphragm. Anything she could do to get herself altitude-fit, she’d try.

  She took a part-time job waitressing at a local cafe to earn extra money for her trips, and in her spare time, she studied climbing and its technicalities. She practised all the knots used with rope climbing, and got to know all the climbing devices, like ice axes, crampons – the spikes screwed into boots to give them traction on ice and snow – and carabiners, spring-loaded metal loops used to connect different components.

  She also carefully researched each of the mountains she’d be tackling and devoured books and DVDs on climbing, and on Everest. She wrote out her goals and motivational quotes she found and posted them up where she’d see them, and put photos of all the mountains on her bedroom walls, as well as on her computer and phone. ‘I believe if I focus and give this major goal everything I have, I will achieve it,’ she says. ‘Having images of my goals everywhere makes it very real and forces me to focus on my goals whenever I see them. It’s very inspirational and means positivity becomes almost second nature, making success even more likely.

  ‘I’ve always believed that if you’re going to do something, don’t do it half-heartedly. Give it everything you’ve got and really commit to it. Give yourself every advantage and never sell yourself short. You are more capable than you think!’

  Glenn’s gym was getting busier by the day, but Alyssa always found space to work out on her own, or she occasionally joined in others’ activities. Glenn and Alyssa were both surprised by the numbers now flocking to the gym. When Glenn started training others, he was only the second personal trainer to operate in Toowoomba who wasn’t employed by a gym, and now there were hundreds. Still, he seemed among the most successful.

  ‘The more, the merrier,’ he says. ‘You have to remember that only between 5 and 7 per cent of Australians take some kind of professional fitness training. So some people might say, Why get into an industry that involves such a small percentage of people? I say that means 95 per cent of the population are potential customers! Gyms aren’t for everyone. Some people like to swim and go bike riding, but it’s all about getting people moving.

  ‘And it can be so rewarding. I’ve had clients who come looking so unhealthy, they can’t run three laps of the gym – and it’s not that big. So to see them get on track and then looking so healthy and feeling so good, it’s great. I was talking to a guy who was running for local politics. Physically, he was overweight and looked bad. He said in his role, he was always eating and drinking. I said, Come and see me! But he said at his age it wasn’t worth it. I asked him how old he was, and he said forty-five. I said, Mate, you’ve probably got another forty years to go, you don’t dare throw in the towel so soon!

  ‘People who exercise might live longer, but they also live better. Who’d want to spend the last ten years of their lives in bed? You do hear of people in their forties who die of heart attacks doing exercise, but it’s rare. It’s all about feeling good within yourself. I’m all about helping other people achieve things, that’s what makes me tick and I use my own personal errors as examples. I don’t hide from the things I’ve done wrong. It’s pretty cool to be able to achieve a goal yourself and it’s pretty cool to help others to do the same thing.’

  Glenn’s Adventure Professionals was also doing well, with his trips growing more and more popular. The Kokoda Track remained his favourite. Glenn knew 2012 was going to be a big year, since it was the seventieth anniversary of the World War II Kokoda campaign. Alyssa asked if she could come along, and he was pleased she was so keen. He agreed and she nominated his April 2012 Kokoda trip to be her next adventure, her next training session for Everest.

  She’d be in good company. Even though there were now around thirty operators running treks on Kokoda, Glenn’s trips were still heavily subscribed. ‘There are some really good operators that have come in, but there are also some real cowboys out there who just throw trips together with minimal insurance or backu
p and just hope nothing goes wrong,’ says Glenn. ‘Nearly every trip you come across another group coming the other way unprepared, and something always happens that makes you wonder.’

  One time, he ran into a man with a group of high school kids. He stopped Glenn and his medic and told them that one of the girls was really sick. The medic took a look and said, ‘I could be wrong, but I suspect she has meningitis – you need to get her out of here ASAP.’ The man replied that he was planning to wait another day to see if she’d come good. Glenn was horrified. ‘I think that’s a dangerous game,’ he told the man. ‘You need to get her out of here as fast as you can.’ He then had another thought, and asked him if the kids were insured. ‘I don’t know,’ the man replied with a shrug. ‘Maybe their parents have got insurance as part of their program.’

  ‘It’s amazing,’ says Glenn. ‘Some people don’t have insurance, don’t have an evacuation plan, they just hope nothing goes wrong. We ended up organising the evacuation for him.’

  Another time he chanced on two Brits walking on their own, trying to do the track quickly in four days. One was fine and he and Glenn had a chat about the military history of the area. Then the other arrived, stumbling and sounding incoherent. ‘Mate, are you going all right?’ Glenn asked him. ‘No,’ he answered. ‘No, not really.’ Glenn asked him if he needed some help, but immediately his friend stepped in. ‘He’s fine,’ he insisted. ‘He’ll be okay.’

  Glenn was still concerned, and asked them if they had a satellite phone with them. They didn’t, but the one who was coping well said there were CB radios along the track. ‘But none of them are working,’ Glenn said. ‘You could be in trouble if you don’t have a sat phone.’ ‘No, I’ve been here before,’ the man retorted. ‘Then you should know not to come here without communications,’ snapped Glenn. ‘This is a really tough jungle.’ But the man wouldn’t listen, and hustled his friend away.